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ALIFORNIA          LIBRARY    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA          LIBRARY    OF 


HIFORNIA          LIBRARY   OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA          LIBRARY    OF 


OF   CALIFORNIA 


LIBRARY    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA 


OF   CALIFORNIA          LIBRARY   OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


bk 


LIFORNIA 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN 
PLANT  LIFE 


H 


Copyright,  1905 
By  The   Macraillan   Company 

Published  September,  1905 


Pleasant 

J.  Horace  McFarland  Company 

Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania 


Co      v  Wilt 


486933 


PREFACE 

JTHHE  preparation  of  this  volume  has  been 
a  work  of  particular  pleasure:  First, 
because  of  the  unusual  interest  which  has 
centered  in  the  development  of  the  material, 
material  which  takes  its  rise  in  primal  places 
and  flows  in  a  broad  stream  outward;  and, 
second,  and  paramount,  it  has  been  a  pleasure 
because  of  the  contact  it  has  brought  with 
the  man  whose  life  and  achievements  it  can 
but  inadequately  portray. 

When  the  demands  of  his  great  work  have 
been  most  exacting,  he  has  never  shrunk  from 
giving  still  more  of  his  strength  to  the  illumi- 
nation of  obscure  points ;  when  the  work  has 
worn  upon  him  so  that  it  has  taxed  his 
energies  to  the  utmost,  while  care  sought  out 
the  strings  of  his  nerves  to  play  sharp  discords 
upon  them,  he  has  never  failed  in  patience  or 

vii 


PREFACE 

yielded  to  the  irritation  that  must  have  swept 
a  lesser  man  off  his  feet. 

For  the  unfailing  courtesy,  for  the  superb 
thoughtfulness,  for  the  rare  gift  of  clarity  of 
speech, —  for  all  these,  and  far  more,  I  am 
under  obligation  to  the  man  about  whom  this 
book  is  written.  If  it  shall  be  an  exposition  of 
his  great  work  which  shall  bring  pleasure  and 
possibly  some  measure  of  profit  to  those  who 
read,  and,  beyond,  if  it  shall  point  the  way 
to  a  still  wider  extension  of  the  work  of  which 
Luther  Burbank  is  so  conspicuous  a  pioneer 
and  leader,  I  shall  indeed  be  glad. 

W.  S.  H. 


viii 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Luther  Burbank,  the  Man  ...        1 

II.  General  Methods  of  Work  .          .          .24 

III.  The  Creation  of  New  Trees         .          .     44 

IV.  The  Amaryllis  and  the  Poppy     .          .     70 
V.  The  Potato  and  the  Pomato        .          .     87 

VI.     The  Lilies 101 

VII.  Plums  and  Prunes  .  .  .  .111 

VIII.  The  Shasta  Daisy  .  .  .  .130 

IX.  The  Thornless  Edible  Cactus  .  .147 

X.  Certain  General  Features  .  .  .159 

XI.  Breeding  for  Perfume            .          .          .173 

XII.  Hardening  and  Adaptation           .          .192 

XIII.  On  the  Origin  of  New  Species     .          .  207 

XIV.  How  May  I  Do  It,  Too;— Breeding    .  226 

XV.  How  May  I  Do  It,  Too;— Grafting  .  248 

XVI.  Commercial  Aspects  of  the  Work  .  268 
ix 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVII.  The  Carnegie  Institution  Grant  .  .  278 

XVIII.  A  Day  With  Mr.  Burbank          .  .  290 

XIX.  His  Personality 305 

XX.  The  Plan  Books          .         .         .  .318 

XXI.  Theories  and  Conclusions     .          .  .  335 

XXII.  His  Place  in  the  World  .  352 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

The  improved  amaryllis,  with  the  blossoms  almost  a  foot 
across  and  of  great  brilliancy  .  .  Frontispiece 

Luther  Burbank  ......        1 

Mr.  Burbank's  home  at  Santa  Rosa,  California       .  .16 

On  the  proving  grounds  at  Sebastopol.     Pampas  grass  in 

the  center,  various  bulbous  plants  in  the  foreground  .       21 

Walnut-leaf  variation.  To  the  left,  common  English  walnut; 
to  the  right,  the  native  California  black  walnut;  in  the 
center,  the  new  hybrid  **  Paradox,"  bred  from  the 
other  two  .  .  *  .  .  .28 

One   of  the    hybrid   chestnuts   bearing  nuts    at   eighteen 

months  of  age  from  the  seed      .  .  .  .35 

A  bed  of  hybrid  poppies         .  .  .  .  .46 

The  central  poppy,  a  brilliant  scarlet  with  purple  center,  is 
the  offspring  of  the  other  two.  The  one  to  the  left, 
Papaver  pilosum,  a  delicate  orange ;  the  one  to  the  right, 
Papaver  somniferum,  the  "Bride  poppy,"  a  pure  white. 
Leaves  of  each  are  shown  .  .  .  .53 

Variation   in  hybrid  poppy  leaves.     Out  of  two  thousand 

plants  no  two  were  alike  .  .  .  .60 

Hundreds  of  rare  hybrid  potato  plants  under  glass  nearly 

ready  for  transplanting     .  .  .  .  .67 

Wild  Arizona  potatoes  used  in  breeding  to  give  strength 

and  hardiness  to  the  common  potato     .  .  .78 

xi 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGK 


Potatoes  growing  upon  a  tomato  vine  after  grafting  upon 

the  potato  root       .  .  .  .  .  .85 

Aerial  potatoes  growing  upon  a  potato  cion  grafted  upon  a 

tomato  plant  .  .  .  .  .  .92 

A  rare  two-petaled  hybrid  seedling  lily         .  .  .99 

The  plumcot,  created  from  the  plum  and  apricot.     A  rare 

new  fruit    .  .  .  .  .  .  .110 

The  "Climax,"  one  of  the  rarest  plums  produced    .  .110 

The  development  of  the   plum.     The  two  larger  ones  are 

seedlings  of  the  other  two  .  .  .  .117 

The  Giant  plum,  not  only  of  largest  size  but  of  great  rich- 
ness and  prolific  in  bearing  .  .  .  .124 

The  sugar  prune, —  larger,  sweeter,  earlier  and  more  pro- 
ductive than  the  older  prunes  .  .  .  .131 

One  of  the  many  rows  of  seedling  Shasta  daisies  from 
which  selection  is  being  made.  The  rows  are  seven 
hundred  feet  long  .  .  .  .  .142 

One  of  the  "Shasta"  daisies.     The  blossoms  are  from  four 

to  six  inches  in  diameter  .  .  .  .149 

Fluted  daisies,  one  of  the   many  curious  forms  developed 

in  the  production  of  the  Shasta  daisies  .  .156 

What  the  thornless  cactus  will  displace  —  a  hint  of  desert 

conditions  .  .  .  .  .  .163 

The  cactus  in  the  foreground  is  the  ordinary  thorny  kind. 
Those  in  the  rear  are  the  thornless  ones  of  the  same 
species  .......  174 

Cactus  tests. —  Thornless,  hybrid  seedling  Opuntias,  now 
eight  weeks  old  from  seed.  They  will  be  transplanted 
later,  after  rigid  selection  .  .  .  .181 

xii 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

One  of  the  thornless  edible  cacti,  three  and  one-half  years 

old,  weighing,  approximately,  twelve  hundred  pounds  .     188 

Forcing  new  forage  plants  under  glass  to  get  quicker  results     195 

The    pineapple  quince,  a  greatly  improved  variety  having 

the  flavor  of  the  pineapple  ....     206 

Selections  from  sweet  vernal   grass  under  development  to 

increase  productiveness     .  .  .  .  .213 

A  bed  of  the  new  fragrant  dahlias    .  .  .  .     220 

The  fragrant  verbena  which   has  been  given   the  odor   of 

the  trailing  arbutus  .....     227 

The  phenomenal  berry,  a  new  species  of  great  size  and  rich- 
ness. Individual  berries  are  sometimes  nearly  three 
inches  long  ......  238 

Leaves  of  blackberry  hybrid,  all  grown  from  seed  of  one 

plant,  showing  the  remarkable  variation  .  .     245 

An  outfit  for  an  amateur  breeder      ....     252 
The  essentials  for  amateur  grafting  .  .  .  .     259 

Upper  part  of  a  tree  bearing  many  grafts.  As  many  as 
five  hundred  fruits  are  grown  upon  a  single  tree  at 
once,  no  two  exactly  alike  ....  270 

Showing  method  of  grafting  .  .  •          ,  •  .277 

Thousands    of  dollars'  worth    of  seeds   and  bulbs   in   the 

packing- room        .  .  .  .  .  .     284 

The  original   Burbank   plum  tree.     Millions  of  trees  have 

been  grown  from  it  »  .          .  .  .  .291 

General  view  of  the  proving  grounds  at  Sebastopol.  Show- 
ing many  thousands  of  plants  under  test  .  .  302 

xiii 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Cultivating  the  mammoth  pieplant.  Some  leaves  are  three 
to  four  feet  across.  Mr.  Burbank  is  the  central 
figure  .  .  .  .  .  .  .309 

Mr.  Burbank  pollinating  the  blossoms  of  a  plum  tree        .     316 
One  of  Mr.  Burbank' s  rare  roses       .  .  .     323 

One  of  the  few  double  hybrid  clematises     .  .  .334 

The  «* Burbank"  and  "Tarrytown"  cannas   under  test   at 

Santa  Rosa,  where  they  originated         .  .  .341 

The  improved  everlasting  flower  to  be  used  in  millinery    .     348 

The  re-created  wild  onion  flower,  Brodicea  capitata,  changed 
from  a  deep  purple  to  purest  white  and  greatly  in- 
creased in  size  ......  355 

Rare  effects  developed  in  the  transformation  of  the  colum- 
bine; about  one -fourth  natural  size  .  .  .  359 

Twenty  thousand   new  varieties   of  plums   in   process   of 

development  ,  362 

A  cactus  blossom         ......     366 


XIV 


Luther  Burbank 


New  Creations  in  Plant  Life 

CHAPTER   I 

LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE  MAN 

TUTHER  BURBANK,  of  whose  life, 
-•-^  achievements  and  methods  this  book  is 
to  treat,  is  the  foremost  plant-breeder  in  the 
world.  Over  two  thousand  five  hundred  dis- 
tinct species  are  in  the  list  of  the  plants  upon 
which  he  has  worked,  embracing  a  large  and 
comprehensive  field  of  operations.  He  has 
also  produced  more  new  forms  of  plant  life 
than  any  other  man,  and  has  exerted  a 
unique  and  powerful  influence. 

These  new  forms  of  plant  life  may  be 
brought  into  two  classes, — those  which  have 
added  to  the  wealth  of  nations  and  enriched 
the  dietary  of  the  race, — as  new  and  improved 
nuts,  fruits  and  vegetables;  and  those  which 
have  made  the  world  more  beautiful, — the  new 
and  improved  forms  of  flowers. 

Without  a  university  training  and  with  only 

1 


js  PLANT   LIFE 

a  fundamental  education  upon  which  he  has 
builded  by  wide  reading,  he  yet  leads  the 
scientific  world  in  the  department  to  which 
he  has  given  his  life.  He  has  suffered  as  few 
men  suffer,  not  only  from  actual  physical 
want  and  privation  but  from  the  unjust  criti- 
cism of  those  who  did  not  comprehend;  but 
he  has  preserved  through  it  all  an  unshaken 
confidence  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  all  good 
forces  in  human  life.  He  has  been  engaged  in 
a  line  of  work  so  novel  and  so  profitable  he 
could  easily  have  built  up  a  fortune,  yet  he 
has  subjected  himself  all  his  life  to  the  most 
rigid  self-denial  and  sacrifice  in  order  that 
every  energy  and  every  resource  might  be 
devoted  to  the  betterment  of  the  world. 

Luther  Burbank  was  born  in  the  town  of 
Lancaster,  Massachusetts,  not  far  from  the 
city  of  Boston,  on  the  7th  of  March,  1849. 
Two  controlling  streams  met  in  the  forming 
of  the  main  current  of  his  life.  From  his 
father,  a  cultivated  man  of  English  extraction, 
came  an  intense  love  for  books;  from  his 
mother,  whose  ancestry  was  Scotch,  an  ardent 
love  for  all  beautiful  forms  of  life.  These  two 
hereditary  influences  have  been  at  work  all 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE    MAN 

through  his  life, — the  one  broadening,  the  other 
deepening  his  nature. 

From  the  earliest  childhood  he  was  passion- 
ately devoted  to  flowers  and  to  all  forms  of 
plant  life.  Very  many  incidents  are  related 
illustrative  of  this.  His  mother  and  sisters 
had  noticed  that  whenever  he  was  given  a 
flower,  while  lying  in  his  cradle,  he  always  held 
it  with  a  certain  childish  tenderness,  never 
crushing  nor  dropping  it  but  keeping  it,  if 
allowed,  until  its  bloom  was  faded  or  its  fra- 
grance gone.  One  day  when  his  sister  had 
given  him  a  flower  he  held  it  in  his  tiny  fin- 
gers with  his  usual  earnestness  until  a  petal 
fell  off.  Then,  with  infinite  childish  patience, 
he  strove  to  put  the  petal  back  in  place  and 
thus  restore  the  flower.  When  a  little  older 
and  able  to  toddle  about,  he  chose  plants  for 
pets  instead  of  animals.  He  was  given  a  plant 
in  a  pot,  a  so-called  lobster  cactus  as  the 
variety  of  cactus  was  locally  known,  and  for 
hours  at  a  time  he  trudged  about  house  and 
yard  carrying  the  cactus  plant  in  his  little 
arms.  One  day  he  stumbled  and  fell,  broke 
the  plant  from  its  stem  and  destroyed  the 
pot.  It  was  a  day  of  great  sadness,  for  he 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

was  as  inconsolable  in  his  grief  over  the  loss 
of  the  pet  plant  as  another  child  would  have 
been  over  the  death  of  a  bird  or  a  faithful 
dog. 

Strangely  enough,  a  half  century  later,  in 
the  prime  of  his  manhood,  he  has  given  years 
of  his  life  to  the  study  of  other  forms  of  this 
pet  of  his  childhood  days,  creating  a  series 
of  thornless,  edible  cacti,  not  only  providing 
a  vast  reservoir  of  food  for  man  and  for  un- 
counted millions  of  the  beasts  of  the  field, 
but  paving  the  way  for  the  reclamation  of  the 
desert  places  of  the  earth.  That  which  was 
once  a  dangerous  foe  of  man  and  beast  be- 
comes, through  him,  a  stanch  friend; — it  is  a 
noble  boon  to  the  race. 

Year  by  year,  as  he  grew  into  boyhood,  his 
love  for  all  the  beautiful  things  in  the  world 
around  him  steadily  deepened.  As  soon  as  he 
was  old  enough  to  be  placed  in  school,  he  at 
once  attracted  the  attention  of  his  teachers  by 
his  love  for  study.  The  love  for  his  school  and 
the  love  for  the  flowers  and  the  trees  and  the 
birds  were  always  manifest.  And  in  the  ripe 
days  of  his  prime  one  may  see  him  turn  with 
boyish  eagerness  from  the  discussion  of  some 

4 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE    MAN 

deep  problem  of  human  life  to  listen  to  the 
note  of  a  lark  in  the  sky. 

By  the  time  he  had  reached  the  age  of 
twelve  he  had  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
outward  forms  of  nature  such  as  few  lads  ever 
attain  at  such  an  age.  All  the  books  he  could 
command  bearing  upon  any  phase  of  science 
or  nature  he  read  and  reread.  The  habit  thus 
acquired  has  lasted.  He  may  not  be  able  to 
tell  you  the  plot  of  the  latest  novel,  but  be 
sure  he  will  be  able  to  talk  with  you  about  the 
latest  discovery  of  the  scientists  and  to  dissect 
•their  conclusions  with  consummate  art.  I  can 
in  no  way  better  illustrate  the  trend  of  the 
lad's  mind  at  that  time  than  to  say  that  in 
his  maturer  years  the  author  which  he  has 
read  most  and  which  he  quotes  more  often 
than  any  other  is  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

As  a  lad,  he  was  not  indifferent  to  the  sports 
of  other  children,  and  entered  heartily  into 
many  of  them,  though  there  was  ever  a 
greater  fascination  for  him  in  the  open  page  of 
a  book  than  in  rod  or  gun  or  ball.  And  great- 
est of  all  was  the  fascination  of  the  natural 
world  opening  to  him  as  it  opens  to  the  heart 
of  a  poet. 

5 


NEW  CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

In  the  town  of  Lancaster  there  was  a  well- 
equipped  academy  to  which  he  was  drawn  as 
soon  as  he  had  finished  the  common  school. 
This  he  attended  during  the  winter  for  several 
seasons,  spending  the  rest  of  the  year  in  work. 
The  town  had  a  large  and  well-stocked  library, 
and  into  this,  and  into  his  father's  few  but  care- 
fully chosen  books,  he  delved  whenever  there 
was  opportunity.  His  father  and  his  father's 
brother,  a  minister,  were  personal  friends  of 
Emerson.  The  uncle's  son,  the  boy's  cousin, 
considerably  older,  was  greatly  interested  in 
science  and  was  also  a  personal  friend  of 
Agassiz,  afterward  becoming  a  successful  edu- 
cator and  a  writer  of  more  than  local  note 
on  scientific  topics,  particularly  geology.  Be- 
tween the  two  there  was  a  strong  bond  of 
friendship.  The  influence  of  such  surround- 
ings had  much  to  do  in  shaping  the  lad's  na- 
ture. Year  by  year  environment  forces  were 
at  work,  and  in  them  may  be  seen  the  proph- 
ecy of  the  development  of  this  wonderful  life. 

During  several  summers  the  boy  worked  in 
the  city  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  in  a  fac- 
tory. His  wage  was  small  and  the  work  was 
hard  and  irksome,  but  he  even  then  had  his 

6 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE    MAN 

ideals  toward  which  he  was  working,  and  he 
kept  on  and  up  amidst  many  discouragements. 
He  learned  soon,  however,  that,  as  there  were 
seven  days  in  the  week  and  as  it  cost  him  at 
least  fifty  cents  a  day  to  live,  he  could  not  get 
along  very  satisfactorily  on  a  six -day  wage  of 
fifty  cents.  The  bent  of  the  boy's  mind  now 
seemed  to  be  toward  what  his  relatives  and 
friends  thought  was  invention,  but  which, 
though  it  included  invention  in  the  ordinary 
meaning  of  the  word,  was  far  beyond  this  in 
scope.  When  still  younger,  he  was  standing 
one  day  by  the  side  of  a  number  of  his  elders 
who  were  vainly  trying  to  put  together  a 
mower.  One  piece  of  the  machinery  would 
not  fit,  and,  after  much  trying,  they  were  giv- 
ing up,  when  the  boy,  rarely  venturing  a  word 
of  advice  to  an  elder,  stepped  forward  and  sug- 
gested how  the  piece  should  go.  It  was  put 
in  place  and  the  machine  moved  off. 

When  asked  how  he  knew  the  piece  of  iron 
belonged  in  that  particular  place,  he  replied 
laconically: 

"Because  you  couldn't  put  it  anywhere 
else!" 

Studying   how  he  might  make   both  ends 

7 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

meet  in  the  factory  on  his  scant  pay,  he  dis- 
covered a  way  to  construct  a  machine  which 
would  do  away  with  the  work  of  at  least  half  a 
dozen  men.  He  made  the  invention,  and  his 
delighted  employers  followed  with  a  substan- 
tial increase  in  his  pay.  They  predicted  for 
him,  as  did  his  friends,  a  brilliant  future  as  an 
inventor,  and  all  urged  him  to  set  about  such 
a  life.  He  has  disregarded  the  advice  of  his 
friends  in  later  years,  as  he  did  then;  and  he 
has  never  found  reason  for  regret,  even  though 
the  way  he  has  traveled  has  led  through  pain 
and  sacrifice. 

Day  by  day  in  the  midst  of  the  toil  of  the 
factory,  unswerved  from  his  ideals  by  the 
promise  of  greater  pecuniary  reward,  the  dom- 
inant chord  in  his  life  was  always  sounding, 
struck  as  it  was  by  the  supreme  purpose  of  his 
soul — to  make  new  things  better  than  the  old, 
to  make  the  old  ones  better  than  they  were. 
All  through  a  life  no  less  scarred  with  sacrifice 
than  adorned  with  triumph  this  same  chord  has 
sounded,  deeper  and  broader  in  its  harmony  as 
the  years  have  come,  but  not  more  true  in  the 
creation  of  marvelous  forms  of  plant  life  than 
in  the  making  of  a  machine  to  quicken  and 

8 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE    MAN 
cheapen    the    process    of    manufacturing     a 

But  there  came  a  day  he  never  forgot,  a  red- 
letter  day  m  his  calendar.    He  had  left  the 
factory  and  had  begun  market-gardening  and 
seed-raising  in  a  smaUway.   ft^^J 
his  taste  and  m  direct  line  with  the  future. 
He  had  noticed  that  there  were  a  good  many 
variations  m  the  green  tops  of  some  potatoes 
e  was  raising,  and  that  in  this  particular  lol 
there  was  but  one  which  bore  a  seed-ball.    He 

l\  £1  /•      Q  1 1*  J=fc  o  r\  T  T-     T-*  i  -*--•- Vx 


tet          f 

hat  if  th      P  rK'nand  ^  at  °nce   rcasoned 
?  this  seed-ball  came  upon  but  one  of  all 

1       ^  Pr°dUCt'  ^  ]t  should  be 


he  w  ,       ,u  aaon-   So 

he  watched  th.s  seed-ball  with  unusual  care 
One  day,  to  his  despair,  he  found  that  the  seed^ 
ball  was  nnssmg.    He  was  about  to  give  up 
the  whole  matter  when  it  occurred  to  him  he 
would  make  a  search  upon  the  ground    He 
found  the  seed-ball  at  last,  where  it  had  been 
knocked  off  probably  by  some  wandering  dog 
rushing  through  the  garden. 

From  it  came  the  Burbank  potato  which 
comparatively  fewpeople  associate  witli 


NEW  CREATIONS  IN   PLANT   LIFE 

Burbank,  the  great  plant -breeder.    ^  potato 

which  he  developed  from  this  seed-ball  has 

Tot  only  disproved  the  dictum  of  those  who 

sa?d  a  potato  famine  was  at  hand  because  of 

the  steady  deterioration  of  the  world's  stock, 

It  Thai  added  to  the  wealth  of  this  n^on 

alone  upwards  of  twenty  muhons  of  dollars 

The  creator  of  the  new  potato  sold  it  to  a  local 

ft™  ring  after  this  that  he  suffered 
partial  sunstroke  in  the   broiling  heat  of  a 
july  day  and,  seeking  a  climate :  where  he 
light  te  able  to  live  an  outdoor  life  without 
5  of  a  return  attack,  and  where  he  might 
hope  some  day  to  put  in  effect  some  of    he 
theories    of    the  development    of    plant   hfe 
already  stirring  in  his  bram,  *e  started  for 
California,  with  a  slender  purse  and  ten  of  Ins 
new  potatoes.   He  reached  California  in  IW, 
and  went  north  from  San  Francisco  some  fifty 
miles  to  an  unimproved  valley  lying  between 
two  spurs   of  the  Coast  Range  Mountains, 
today  a  rich  fruit  and  farming  country. 

.  He  was  then  a  little  past  twenty-one,  slen- 
der, not  over-strong,  and  yet  possessed  of 
much  vitality  and  endurance.  These  latter  he 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE    MAN 

was  soon  called  upon  to  put  to  test.  The 
country  was  new,  and  the  few  ranchers  and 
farmers  had  not  yet  begun  to  realize  the  pos- 
sibilities of  their  region  in  the  way  of  fruit 
culture.  He  sought  for  work,  that  he  might 
get  ahead  enough  to  make  a  start  as  a  nur- 
seryman. He  saw  the  possibilities  of  the 
country  in  this  line  and  the  promise  of  a  good 
living,  and  perhaps  a  competence  if  he  could 
only  get  established.  But  work  was  not  easy 
to  get.  Day  after  day  he  sought  it  and  failed, 
and  day  by  day  his  slender  store  of  money 
ran  down.  He  did  all  sorts  of  odd  jobs,  many 
of  them  far  beyond  his  strength.  He  heard  of 
a  new  building  to  be  put  up  in  the  frontier 
town.  He  applied  for  work.  He  had  no  tools, 
but,  being  promised  a  job  if  he  had  a  shing- 
ling hatchet,  he  invested  nearly  all  of  his 
remaining  funds  in  one,  only  to  find,  the  next 
morning,  that  the  job  had  gone  to  some  one 
else. 

He  found  more  steady  work  at  last  at  a 
mere  pittance,  cleaning  out  chicken-coops  on 
a  chicken-ranch.  The  work  was  disagreeable 
in  the  extreme,  but  he  was  willing  to  do  any- 
thing that  was  honorable.  At  this  time  he 

11 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

had  no  place  to  sleep  nights,  and  for  months 
made  his  bed  in  a  chicken-coop,  unable  to  get 
enough  money  ahead  to  pay  for  regular  lodg- 
ings. Occasionally,  when  work  altogether 
failed,"  he  was  reduced  to  absolute  want.  It 
was  his  habit  at  such  times  to  go  to  the  village 
meat  market,  secure  the  refuse  bones  saved  for 
dogs,  and  get  from  them  what  meat  he  could. 

He  found  steady  employment  at  last  in  a 
small  nursery  at  a  beggarly  wage.  Not  being 
able  to  hire  lodgings,  he  slept  in  a  bare,  damp, 
unwholesome  room  above  the  steaming  hot- 
house, where  for  days  and  nights  at  a  time 
his  clothing  was  never  dry.  He  was  passing 
through  such  privations  as  those  through 
which,  in  the  strange  allotments  of  fortune, 
many  another  great  man  has  passed. 

The  constant  exposure  and  lack  of  nourish- 
ing food  made  rapid  inroads  upon  a  not  too 
strong  constitution,  and  this,  with  overwork, 
brought  on  an  attack  of  fever.  A  woman  in 
the  neighborhood,  herself  in  straitened  cir- 
cumstances, found  him  one  day  in  such  a  criti- 
cal condition  that  she  insisted  on  sharing  with 
him  the  small  portion  of  milk  which  she  could 
afford  to  spare  from  the  one  cow  that  supplied 

12 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE    MAN 

her  family.  He  protested  against  taking  it 
because  he  might  never  be  able  to  repay  her, 
and,  indeed,  there  was  scant  hope  in  his 
condition  that  he  would  live  to  do  it.  The 
woman  insisted,  and  the  pint  of  milk  a  day 
which  she  brought  to  him  saved  his  life. 

The  man  who  was  to  become  the  foremost 
figure  in  the  world  in  his  line  of  life,  and  who 
was  to  pave  the  way  by  his  own  discoveries 
and  creations  for  others  of  all  lands  to  follow 
in  his  footsteps,  was  a  stranger  in  a  strange 
land,  close  to  starvation,  penniless,  beset  by 
disease,  hard  by  the  gates  of  death.  And  yet 
never  for  an  instant  did  this  heroic  figure  lose 
hope,  never  did  he  abandon  confidence  in  him- 
self, not  once  did  he  swerve  from  the  path  he 
had  marked  out.  In  the  midst  of  all  he  kept 
an  unshaken  faith.  He  accepted  the  trials  that 
came,  not  as  a  matter  of  course,  not  tamely, 
nor  with  any  mock  heroics,  but  as  a  passing 
necessity.  His  resolution  was  of  iron,  his  will 
of  steel,  his  heart  of  gold;  he  was  fighting  in 
the  splendid  armor  of  a  clean  life. 

It  was  a  wan  and  haggard  figure  that  rose 
at  last  from  his  sick  bed  and  wandered  from 
place  to  place  in  search  of  work.  Matters 

13 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

shaped  themselves  gradually,  more  and  more 
in  his  favor  and  he  went  from  one  odd  job 
to  another,  slowly  saving  a  little  money  and 
regaining  his  health.  The  day  came  at  last 
when  he  had  a  bit  of  a  balance  in  the  bank 
and  soon  after  he  was  able  in  a  small  way  to 
set  up  in  business  for  himself. 

He  secured  a  small  plot  of  ground  and 
established  the  nursery  which  was  to  become 
famous  throughout  not  only  his  own  state  but 
the  country  at  large.  His  heart  was  in  his 
work  now,  but  there  was  something  else.  All 
through  these  years  of  early  manhood,  in  the 
midst  of  discouragement  and  privation,  he 
never  let  go  of  the  plan  of  his  life — to  become 
not  merely  a  raiser  of  plants  but  an  improver 
and  a  creator.  Even  in  those  first  days,  as 
chance  offered,  he  began  that  wonderful  series 
of  experiments  which  has  astonished  the  scien- 
tific men  of  two  hemispheres  and  established 
an  epoch  in  the  life  of  the  vegetable  kingdom 
from  which  the  future  will  reckon. 

One  day  there  came  to  the  young  nursery- 
man an  order  in  the  filling  of  which  he  dis- 
played that  boldness  of  plan  and  audacity  of 
execution  which  have  many  a  time  marked  his 

14 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE    MAN 

progress.  The  order  was  from  a  man  who  was 
going  to  start  a  large  prune  ranch.  He  wanted 
twenty  thousand  young  prune  trees  to  set  out. 
It  would  take  in  the  ordinary  course  of  events 
from  two  and  a  half  to  three  years  for  a  nur- 
seryman to  raise  the  trees,  but  this  was  a 
hurry-up  order;  if  it  was  to  be  filled,  it  must 
be  filled  in  nine  months. 

He  took  the  order.  With  all  haste  he 
scoured  the  country  for  men  and  boys  to  plant 
almonds.  It  was  late  in  the  season  and  the 
almond  seed  was  the  only  one  which  would 
sprout  at  that  time  among  all  the  trees  that 
were  suitable  for  his  plans.  It  grows  very 
rapidly,  too,  and  this  was  taken  into  account. 
In  a  comparatively  short  time  the  young  shoots 
were  big  enough  for  budding.  Twenty  thou- 
sand prune  buds  were  in  readiness,  were  bud- 
ded into  the  growing  almonds,  and  the  young 
trees  started  forward  in  their  race  for  the  prize. 
When  the  nine  months  were  up  the  twenty 
thousand  prune  trees  were  ready.  Nature  had 
been  outwitted,  or,  better  put,  had  been  led  to 
outdo  herself;  the  fruit-grower  was  delighted  ; 
the  young  nurseryman  was  a  good  many  dol- 
lars in  pocket.  Today,  twenty  years  afterward, 

15 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

one  of  the  finest  prune  orchards  in  California 
or  the  world  is  growing  from  these  trees. 

It  was  a  concrete  illustration  of  the  re- 
sourcefulness of  the  man  and  of  that  which 
has  again  and  again  been  shown  in  his  later 
life,  his  supreme  indifference  to  precedent. 

He  early  established  an  unvarying  rule, 
never  to  send  out  anything  which  was  not,  so 
far  as  lay  in  his  power,  precisely  what  it  was 
represented  to  be.  So  his  name  became  a 
synonym  for  exact  honesty, — if  it  came  from 
Burbank,  it  was  to  be  depended  upon. 

An  incident  well  illustrates  the  confidence 
men  had  in  him  when  once  they  came  to  know 
him.  He  was  in  need  of  some  extra  money  to 
use  in  carrying  forward  a  branch  of  his  work. 
He  had  applied  for  a  loan  unsuccessfully  at 
quite  a  number  of  places.  His  very  modesty 
and  shrinkingness,  in  the  eyes  of  a  business 
man,  stood  against  him.  One  day,  when  he  had 
given  up  hope  of  the  loan,  he  saw  a  team  of 
horses  in  the  distance  coming  down  the  dusty 
road.  As  the  team  drew  near  he  recognized  a 
man  who  lived  in  the  region,  by  common  repu- 
tation a  miserable  old  skinflint.  Hailing  from 
the  road  as  he  drove  up,  he  called  out: 

16 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE    MAN 

"Say,  young  feller,  I've  been  watchin'  you  a 
long  time.  You're  allus  attendin'  to  bizness. 
But  a  man  that  kin  do  what  you  kin  do  oughter 
have  an  easier  time  than  you're  havin'.  Don't 
you  need  a  little  extry  cash  once  in  a  while?" 

Greatly  interested  in  such  a  query  from 
such  a  man,  he  answered  that  he  could  use  a 
little  additional  money  now  and  then, — in  fact, 
he  knew  where  he  could  put  a  hundred  dollars 
that  very  day,  in  a  place  where  it  would  bring 
in  a  handsome  return. 

Pulling  out  an  old  wallet,  the  so-called  skin- 
flint counted  out  two  hundred  dollars  and 
handed  them  to  the  astonished  nurseryman. 

"No,"  as  he  drove  off,  "I  don't  want  no 
note,  nor  no  intrust  nuther:  when  you  git 
ready  to  pay  it,  all  right.  G'long,  there ! " 

The  years  now  rapidly  passed.  The  business 
began  to  yield  more  handsomely,  and  yet 
he  was  less  and  less  satisfied  with  the  outlook. 
In  the  midst  of  the  exacting  demands  of  his 
work,  he  yet  found  time  to  devote  to  experi- 
mentation with  new  forms  of  plant  life, — 
always  before  him  the  supreme  purpose  of  his 
life.  Reticent  by  nature,  though  never  secre- 
tive, he  did  not  talk  over  his  new  ideas  with 

17 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

any  one.  No  one  was  to  know  what  he  was 
engaged  in  until  such  time  as  he  had  some- 
thing to  show  for  it. 

As  he  had  opportunity,  he  read  such  few 
practical  books  on  botany  and  the  breeding  of 
plants  as  he  could  find,  but  these,  save  in  some 
matters  of  nomenclature  and  detail,  were  of 
little  aid  to  him.  He  soon  found  out  that  he 
stood  face  to  face  with  Nature,  and  only 
from  her  lips  could  he  learn  her  secrets. 

He  read  Darwin  among  other  scientists, 
and  was  greatly  interested  in  the  Origin  of 
Species.  In  his  own  mind  were  developing,  at 
the  same  time,  important  theories,  which  must 
be  noted  in  a  later  chapter.  Even  as  he 
worked  the  hardest,  and  all  unknown  to  him- 
self in  large  measure,  his  own  mind  was  being 
broadened  and  deepened.  He  saw  before  him 
now  something  of  the  possibilities  of  plant 
creation — his  vision  was  strong  and  true, 
his  perspective  never  distorted. 

There  came  another  red-letter  day  in  his 
calendar.  It  was  the  day  when  he  came  to  the 
formal  decision  that  he  would  give  up  his 
nursery  business  and  devote  his  entire  time 
and  energies  to  plant -breeding.  As  soon  as  his 

18 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE    MAN 

relatives  and  friends  heard  of  his  decision,  they 
entered  vehement  protest.  What  greater  folly 
could  a  man  commit  than  to  abandon  a  busi- 
ness now  netting  him  nearly  ten  thousand 
dollars  a  year  to  embark  upon  a  project  at  the 
best  Quixotic  and  sure  to  end  in  financial 
ruin?  It  was  the  same  sort  of  reasoning  he 
had  listened  to  when  a  boy,  when  his  friends 
and  relatives  pictured  a  great  career  as  an 
inventor. 

Ridicule,  pity,  scorn,  harsh  criticism,  all 
were  alike  unavailing.  He  listened  with  pa- 
tience, but  went  forward  in  the  line  he  had 
marked  out.  So  one  day  in  the  year  1893  he  .  / 
found  himself  free  from  the  exacting  demands 
of  his  business  life,  his  extensive  nursery  closed 
out.  He  had  entered  upon  a  career  which  was 
to  be  even  more  exacting  than  this  business 
life,  but  he  entered  upon  it  high  in  hope  and 
rich  in  resolution. 

Slowly  he  put  into  effect  his  plans.  Having 
tested  a  new  fruit  or  flower  or  an  improved 
old  one,  he  kept  it  back,  following  in  his  old 
lines  as  a  nurseryman,  until  he  was  absolutely 
sure  it  was  going  to  do  precisely  what  he  said 
it  would  do.  Not  until  then  was  he  ready  to 

19 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

put  a  new  creation  before  the  world.  The  new 
and  improved  varieties  were  sold  to  bring  him 
revenue  for  the  further  prosecution  of  his 
work.  The  sums  for  which  they  sold  were 
ridiculously  small,  considering  the  time  con- 
sumed in  their  production,  often  years  of  the 
most  patient  study  and  experimentation,  and 
the  large  revenues  that  were  derived  from  the 
new  creations  by  the  dealers  purchasing  them. 
Perhaps  from  one  hundred  dollars,  at  the  start, 
up  to  five  hundred  would  be  an  average.  Or- 
ders soon  began  coming  from  Europe,  where 
he  gradually  became  better  known,  where, 
indeed,  he  was  appreciated  as  he  had  never 
been  in  his  own  country. 

His  income  rose  steadily,  but  it  did  not 
match  his  outlay.  There  were  laborers'  wages 
to  pay,  supplies  to  be  bought,  funds  provided 
for  paying  for  the  services  of  collectors  in  for- 
eign lands,  on  the  lookout  for  new  kinds  of 
plants.  His  reputation  was  advancing,  but 
year  by  year  he  was  falling  behind  and  en- 
croaching more  and  more  upon  the  store  set 
by  for  the  rainy  day. 

Opposition  now  came  from  many  quarters. 
Not  only  did  his  friends  see  the  fulfilment  of 

20 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE   MAN 

their  predictions, — some  of  them  very  kindly 
telling  him  so, — but  people  who  had  heard  of 
some  of  the  strange  things  he  had  done,  and 
who  had  not  the  breadth  of  vision  to  see  what 
manner  of  man  this  was,  pronounced  him  a 
charlatan, — a  man  who  was  creating  all  manner 
of  unnatural  forms  of  life,  monstrosities,  in- 
deed a  distinct  foe  to  the  race.  A  minister  in- 
vited Mr.  Burbank  to.  listen  to  a  sermon  on 
his  work,  and  when  the  guest  was  in  the  pew 
denounced  him  in  bitter  fashion  as  a  man  who 
was  working  in  direct  opposition  to  the  will  of 
God,  in  thus  creating  new  forms  of  life  which 
never  should  have  been  created,  or  if  created, 
only  by  God  himself. 

Now  and  again  arose  some  pseudo- scientific 
man  who,  professing  unlimited  friendship, 
sought  for  means  to  filch  the  rapidly  increasing 
reputation.  Others  visited  him  with  the  cov- 
ert purpose  of  exposing  him  as  a  charlatan 
after  inspecting  his  methods,  but,  confounded 
by  what  they  saw,  went  down  the  little  hedge- 
bordered  walk  that  leads  to  his  quiet  home 
shamed  into  silence.  From  various  sources 
came  offers  of  aid;  but  the  keen  vision  of  the 
man  read  every  proposition  in  its  spirit  as  well 

21 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

as  its  letter  and  detected  unerringly  the  efforts 
which,  while  apparently  in  his  behalf,  were  in 
reality  essentially  selfish,  planned  so  that  others 
might  profit  by  his  experiences.  There  were 
strings  to  them;  he  would  have  none  of  them. 
He  could  divide  responsibility,  and  apportion 
duty,  but  he  could  not  yield  authority.  It 
would  be  fatal  to  have  any  other  will  than  his 
own  in  command. 

But  he  was  learning  now  that,  to  accomplish 
the  work  he  had  mapped  out,  and  so  to  leave 
it  that  others  could  take  it  up  where  he  left  it 
and  carry  it  forward,  it  was  imperative  that  he 
have  assistance.  Already  many  millions  of 
dollars  had  been  added  to  the  national  wealth 
because  of  his  improved  fruits.  Already  the 
whole  world  was  being  brightened  by  his 
flowers.  And  yet,  if  he  should  be  able  to  work 
without  handicap,  the  future  promised  far 
greater  results  than  the  past.  Now  and  again, 
too,  he  was  bitterly  admonished  that  he  could 
not  work  eighteen  hours  out  of  the  twenty- 
four.  Occasional  illnesses  came.  He  found 
that  the  nature  he  loved  so  well  could  chide 
as  well  as  cheer.  Several  times  he  was  laid 
by  with  dangerous  nervous  breakdowns. 


LUTHER   BURBANK,  THE   MAN 

At  this  point  a  plan  was  unfolded  to  him, 
considered  somewhat  at  length  in  a  later  chap- 
ter, for  substantial  assistance  from  the  Car- 
negie Institution  in  a  manner  which  would 
leave  him  absolutely  his  own  master  and 
would  enable  that  organization  to  become  a 
silent  partner  in  the  furtherance  of  his  plans. 

Thus  the  way  opened  to  a  maximum  of 
effort  at  a  minimum  of  waste. 


CHAPTER  II 

GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

BEFORE  passing  to  the  individual  crea- 
tions of  Mr.  Burbank,  it  will  be  of  inter- 
est to  consider  the  general  plan  of  his  life- 
work,  reserving  for  later  chapters  the  minutiae 
of  the  methods,  so  presented  and  so  fortified 
by  advice  from  Mr.  Burbank  that  the  ama- 
teur, no  less  than  the  professional,  may  receive 
suggestions  for  the  prosecution  of  plant-breed- 
ing, one  of  the  most  fascinating  occupations 
in  the  world,  and  one  full  of  great  practical 
possibilities.  Indeed,  as  Mr.  Burbank  puts  it, 
results  of  enormous  value  to  the  race  may  at 
any  time  come  from  the  work  of  any  man 
who  takes  up  plant -breeding  with  patience 
and  intelligent  interest. 

The  aim  of  Mr.  Burbank,  aside  from  that 
paramount  object  always  overshadowing  all 
else,  to  give  aid  to  the  race,  is  threefold: 

1.  The  improvement  of  old  varieties  of 
fruits,  flowers,  grasses,  trees  and  vegetables. 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

2.  The  merging  of  wild,  or  degenerate,  types 
of  plant  life  with  tame,  or  cultivated  ones,  in 
order  that  the  union  may  be  of  service  to  both. 

3.  The  creation  of  absolutely  new  forms  of 
life,  unknown  to  the  world  before, — the  highest 
act  of  the  plant-breeder. 

The  general  character  of  his   work   is   in- 
cluded under  two  heads: 

1.  Breeding. — This,  in   its    basic   meaning, 
consists  in  uniting  two  plants  to  give  birth  to 
a  third.    A  thousand  and  one  things  must  be 
taken  into  account,  all  accumulating  through 
hereditary   influences   and    environment,   and 
reaching  out  through  all  the  future  life  of  the 
plant;  but,  for  present  consideration,  the  chief 
act  is  parental.    Breeding  is  accomplished  by 
sifting  the  pollen  of  one  plant  upon  the  stigma 
of  another,  this  act,  pollenation,  resulting  in 
fertilization,  Nature,  in   her  own   mysterious 
ways,  bringing  forth  the  new  plant. 

2.  Selection. — This     consists    in     eternally 
choosing   the   best   and   rejecting  the   worst. 
It  is  co-equal   in   importance  with  breeding, 
the   one   supplementary   to   the   other  at   all 
points. 

The  breeding  of  plants  is  not  a  new  act. 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

Generally  speaking,  however,  those  who  have 
carried  it  on  have  worked  in  small  quarters, 
perhaps  in  gardens  or  conservatories,  usually 
with  comparatively  few  varieties.  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  early  saw  that  this  was  slow  work,  that 
it  would  take  the  years  of  many  lifetimes  to 
accomplish  what  he  had  laid  out  before  him. 
The  sending  of  telegrams  was  once  confined 
to  a  single  message,  one  way,  in  one  direction. 
Even  this  was  a  wonderful  thing,  but  it  was 
slow,  and  so  there  was  devised  a  system  of 
sending  many  messages  upon  the  single  wire 
in  both  directions  at  the  same  time. 

Some  such  transformation  as  this  he  has 
wrought  in  plant-breeding. 

Instead  of  one  or  two  experiments  under 
way  at  the  same  time,  he  may  have  five  hun- 
dred at  once,  all  requiring  constant  supervi- 
sion, many  of  them  extending  over  a  period 
of  perhaps  ten  years  before  they  come  to  frui- 
tion. Instead  of  having  a  few  square  feet  of 
ground  or  a  few  pots  under  glass,  he  uses 
acres  of  ground,  if  necessary,  in  a  single  test. 
In  place  of  contenting  himself  with  a  half 
dozen,  or  even  fifty  plants,  in  making  a  given 
test,  he  uses  if  necessary  a  million,  all  of  them 

26 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

pressing  forward  in  a  million  similar  ways, 
toward  the  same  end.  And  out  of  the  million 
he  saves  perhaps  i<*  the  last  sifting  but  one, 
and  that  one  the  best  of  all. 

Running  through  all  the  work  is  the  con- 
stant effort  to  break  up  old  habits  of  life.  Mr. 
Burbank  sees  two  plants  of  the  same,  or  it  may 
be  widely  differing,  species.  He  sees  that 
neither  one  is  living  up  to  its  opportunities. 
For  one  reason  or  another  they  have  been 
slowly  going  down  in  the  scale,  possibly  for 
centuries;  or  else  it  may  be  they  have  been 
as  slowly  going  upward  from  some  poorer 
estate  and  have  not  had  sufficient  help.  He 
knows  that  back  of  each  one  of  these  plants 
lies  a  long  and  varied  history,  full  of  incidents, 
replete  in  experiences  as  strange  in  their  way 
and  as  subtle  as  any  which  come  to  man. 
This  past  of  the  plant  has  produced  the  plant 
of  today — tomorrow  it  must  be  changed. 

Just  as  into  the  life  of  a  man  long  inured  to 
bad  habits,  the  son  of  evil  parents,  tracing  his 
lineage  backward  through  a  century  of  sin, 
just  as  there  must  come  into  this  life  some 
tremendous  shock,  be  it  a  death,  a  terror,  a 
great  love  or  an  overpowering  hate,  completely 

27 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

changing  the  course  of  his  life  and  making  an 
abrupt  break  in  the  generations  of  crime,  so  in 
a  gentler  but  none  the  less  powerful  manner 
the  plant  must  have  the  overpowering  shock  of 
re-creation,  it  must  irrevocably  break  with  the 
past.  As  in  the  case  of  the  man,  so  with  the 
flower.  The  initial  shock  and  subsequent 
change  may  be  followed  by  a  reaction  and  a 
return  in  some  measure  to  the  old  order  of 
things ;  but  just  as  care  and  patience  and  wise 
living  and  the  higher  aid  may  help  the  man 
back  and  steady  him  in  a  course  of  right  living, 
so  the  plant,  though  it  rebel  at  first,  finally 
becomes  fixed  in  its  new  ways  and  starts 
forward  to  enrich  or  glorify  the  world. 

The  very  least  of  Mr.  Burbank's  labor  is  the 
actual  breaking  up  of  the  plant's  life  by  the 
shock  of  re-creation,  the  vastest  in  its  scope 
that  a  life  can  bear,  such  shock  as  even  death 
does  not  bring,  for  it  is  death  and  life  in  one, 
the  death  of  the  old  and  the  birth  of  the  new. 
But  this,  however  grave  a  change,  is  only  an 
incident  in  the  work.  He  must  study  the 
plant  in  all  its  relations.  He  must  know  its 
past  intimately.  He  must  take  into  account 
ten  thousand  past  tendencies.  He  must  look 

28 


Walnut -leaf  variation.  To  the  left,  common  English  walnut;  to 
the  right,  the  native  California  black  walnut ;  in  the  center,  the  new 
hybrid  "Paradox,"  bred  from  the  other  two. 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

to  the  future  of  the  new  plant  and  see  in  what 
manner  it  is  to  fill  out  its  new  place  in  the 
world  among  its  fellows  and  amidst  perhaps 
radically  different  environments.  These  plants 
are  like  children.  To  know  them  you  must 
know  their  ancestry  ;  and  to  know  their  ances- 
try affords  at  least  some  hint  of  their  future. 
In  a  plant,  this  past,  this  heredity  which  Mr. 
Burbank,  more  clearly  than  it  has  been  set 
forth  before,  pronounces  "the  sum  of  all  past 
environments,"  is  perhaps  more  fixed  than  that 
of  a  child's  past,  because  it  has  not  had  so  many 
obvious  disturbances.  It  has  not  been  subject 
to  the  inconsistencies  of  human  love  and  its 
strange  selections.  This  knowledge  of  the  past 
of  the  plant  and  this  intimate  study  of  its  life 
and  the  related  life  of  other  plants  are  among 
the  factors  which  help  to  give  Mr.  Burbank 
the  commanding  place  he  holds  in  the  world. 

When  the  past  of  the  plant  has  been  broken 
up,  then  comes  the  turning  of  its  life  forces 
into  its  new  channels.  Indeed,  when  we  begin 
to  search  for  the  secret  of  Mr.  Burbank's 
success,  we  find  that  it  lies  deep,  and  sweeps 
forward  with  a  powerful  hold  upon  the  very 
sources  of  life  itself.  Perhaps  the  flower  he  is 

29 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

for  the  time  considering  has  had  a  small,  insig- 
nificant blossom  all  its  life,  all  the  life,  anyway, 
that  is  recorded  by  man.  Its  life  tendencies 
have  centered  and  culminated,  so  to  speak,  in 
this  pitifully  inadequate  bloom.  The  blossom 
is  not  only  small  and  unattractive  in  form  but 
weak  in  color,  hard  by  the  realm  of  the  outcast 
weeds.  But  he  has  seen  in  it  great  possibil- 
ities; swiftly  he  sets  about  its  improvement. 
Possibly  he  sees  that  by  combining  it  with 
some  near  related  flower  friend  he  may  make 
it  lovelier,  perhaps  he  decides  that  the  only  way 
to  do  is  to  pick  out  the  very  best  of  its  kind 
from  among  a  thousand  or  ten  thousand 
plants  and  from  this  best  one,  poor  though  it 
may  be,  go  on  and  on  in  a  constant  succession 
of  upward  selections  from  the  plants  that 
follow  the  seeding,  until  at  last  he  brings 
forth  the  blossom  he  sought,  beautiful,  large, 
richer  in  color,  fine  and  velvety  in  texture,  a 
royal  addition  to  the  blossoms  of  the  world. 
It  takes  long  to  do  this, — perhaps  twenty 
years.  Twenty  years  to  produce  a  new  flower? 
Certainly,  why  not?  Is  it  not  worth  it?  Not 
that  he  may  spend  his  whole  time  for  that 
term  on  a  single  plant, — a  whole  series  of  them 

30 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

is  in  process  of  development  at  once,  hundreds 
of  varieties.  But  it  is  years  in  almost  every 
case  before  the  end  is  reached, — so  slow  the 
work  of  selection  from  year  to  year,  this  eter- 
nal choosing  of  the  best  plants  from  the  best. 
And  there  are  many  obstacles.  When  two 
plants  are  united  to  produce  a  third,  no  human 
intelligence  can  predict  just  what  will  follow. 
You  have  in  the  hollow  of  your  hand  a  dozen 
seeds  from  one  of  your  choicest  apples.  It  had 
reddened  in  the  autumn  sun  on  a  tree  you  had 
known  since  boyhood.  You  had  watched  it 
blossom  in  pink  beauty  in  the  springtime  of 
other  years,  had  seen  its  fruit  develop  in  the 
mellowing  summer,  had  watched  its  bare 
branches  tossed  in  the  gale  when  the  winter 
snows  lay  deep  at  its  feet.  Here  in  your  hand 
lie  the  seeds  of  this  apple.  It  may  be  you  are 
a  thousand  miles  away  from  the  old  home 
where  the  apple  tree  is  growing.  It  would  be 
a  rare  delight  for  you,  transplanted  to  another 
region,  and  for  your  children  after  you,  to  raise 
another  tree  from  the  seeds  of  the  old  friend. 
So  you  plant  your  twelve  seeds  to  rear  on  a 
new  soil  the  old  friend,  and  not  one  of  them 
comes  into  a  life  in  any  particular  like  the 

31 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

life  of  the  old  tree  at  home — indeed,  it  may 
turn  out  not  one  of  them  bears  fruit  fit  for  the 
tongue. 

So  it  may  be  with  a  new  life  from  cross-bred- 
ing  and  selection, — the  end  cannot  always  be 
foretold.  But  Mr.  Burbank  does  not  content 
himself  with  the  use  of  two  or  three  plants  as 
stock,  taking  chances  on  their  failure  to  make 
progress.  Many  men  have  used  a  few  plants 
and  have  found  certain  results  following,  and 
now  and  again  has  arisen  one  who,  from  his 
few  experiments,  has  reached  certain  results 
which  entitle  his  deductions,  he  believes,  to  be 
known  thereafter  as  laws.  Mr.  Burbank  has 
never  worked  in  this  way.  He  early  saw  that 
to  carry  on  his  plans  in  the  broadest  and  best 
manner,  to  avoid  the  delays  incident  to  a 
failure  of  a  single  plant  to  show  improvement, 
he  must  work  with  thousands  where  necessary, 
indeed,  with  tens  of  thousands;  indeed,  more 
than  this,  with  a  million  plants  if  needs  be. 
For  example,  in  breeding  lilies  he  has  used  as 
high  as  five  hundred  thousand  plants  in  a 
single  test.  Out  of  this  enormous  number 
there  naturally  were  great  variations,  and  so 
before  his  eyes  spread  out  a  vast  panorama, 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

rich  in  varied  opportunities  for  initial  selec- 
tion. Out  of  this  initial  selection  he  makes 
final  choice  of  the  best. 

Sometimes  he  has  marked  out  a  certain 
line  of  life  for  a  flower.  He  has  bred  and  se- 
lected to  that  end.  For  a  time  all  goes  as  he 
had  planned,  but  suddenly  a  new  trait  de- 
velops, something  which  completely  throws  all 
former  plans  out  of  gear.  He  does  not  aban- 
don the  test,  but  watches  with  the  intensest 
interest  the  new  development.  If  the  plant 
persists  in  its  way, — and  the  new  way  is 
better, —  he  leaves  the  old  and  follows  the  new. 
No  man  is  quicker  to  give  up,  when  convinced 
that  giving  up  is  best.  But  he  is  not  con- 
vinced easily ; — the  evidence  against  him  must 
be  unanswerable.  Now  and  then  out  of  the 
muck  of  some  slum,  reeking  with  moral  filth, 
and  developing  with  unwholesome  rapidity 
the  seeds  of  anarchy  and  crime,  a  white,  pure 
life  springs  up,  persists,  maintains  its  guard 
against  all  temptations,  comes  back,  mayhap, 
in  later  years  to  help  redeem  its  birthplace. 
And  so  in  a  similar  way  a  flower  sometimes 
breaks  away  from  the  line  of  life  all  logic  and 
reason  would  say  it  should  follow. 

33 


NEW    CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

The  new  plant  may  develop  certain  charac- 
teristics like  those  of  one  parent,  certain  others 
like  those  of  the  other  parent.  It  may  inherit 
length  of  stem  from  one,  breadth  of  leaf  from 
the  other,  or  it  may  have  stem  and  leaf  wholly 
unlike  either.  And  this  latter  is  frequently 
the  end  sought, — to  produce  a  different  type 
from  that  of  either  and  from  that  produce  by 
long  selection  a  type  superior  to  either  parent. 
Very  much  of  breeding  is  breaking  up. 

I  recall  with  interest  a  conversation  with  a 
gentleman  in  the  city  of  London*  concerning 
the  terrible  depravity  among  the  young  men 
of  that  city.  There  were  at  that  time  fully 
eight  hundred  thousand  young  men  in  the 
city  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  twenty- 
five.  He  was  perhaps  better  acquainted  with 
the  youth  of  the  greatest  city  in  the  world 
than  any  other  man  in  it.  He  said,  as  the  re- 
sult of  his  years  of  experience,  that,  but  for 
the  inflow  of  country  blood  into  the  veins  of 
London,  London  life  would  become  practi- 
cally extinct  in  three  generations, — so  vast 
the  vice. 

Just  as  this,  and  all  other  great  cities,  are 
strengthened  physically,  mentally  and,  indeed, 

34 


One  of  the  hybrid  chestnuts,  bearing  nuts  at  eighteen  months 
of  age  from  the  seed 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

morally,  by  the  influence  of  those  who  are 
born  and  reared  in  country  places,  so,  many 
times,  a  plant  which  has  long  lived  in  a  care- 
less civilization  having  lost  its  vitality,  needs  a 
new  infusion  of  blood.  Mr.  Burbank  has  ever 
been  a  close  student  of  all  the  outward  forms 
of  nature,  as  well  as  of  all  her  strange  inner 
life.  All  through  all  the  years  he  has  been 
working  upon  the  flowers  and  plants  he  has 
found  in  the  open,  using  them  frequently  for 
this  very  purpose  to  strengthen  the  strain  of 
some  over -civilized  plant  needing  the  fresh 
impulse  of  the  wild,  strong  neighbor  of  the 
mountains  or  forest.  Collectors  in  all  quarters 
of  the  world,  too,  are  steadily  on  the  lookout 
to  provide  him  with  plant  life  from  their  re- 
gions, sometimes  wild,  sometimes  tame,  with 
which  to  make  combinations  or  developments. 
So  he  is  confined  to  no  one  species  nor  to 
any  one  line  of  combinations.  The  whole 
world  is  his  field,  and  he  makes  his  selections 
and  forms  his  combinations  in  absolute  dis- 
regard of  all  precedent.  The  end  in  view  is 
the  point,  how  to  reach  it  most  directly.  It 
may  be  along  so-called  scientific  lines,  it  may 
be  in  absolutely  new  and  original  paths, — 

35 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

more  likely  the  latter, —  but  the  means  are  the 
non-essentials,  the  end  is  paramount. 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  order  to  accomplish 
the  results  that  are  changing  in  many  ways 
the  plant  life  of  the  world  and  opening  the 
way  to  still  greater  changes,  something  else 
must  enter  into  the  matter  than  mere  observa- 
tion, however  keen,  than  knowledge,  however 
deep,  than  experience,  however  broad.  And 
this  strange,  intangible  thing,  for  want  of  a 
better  term,  we  call  intuition. 

There  comes  a  day  each  year  in  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  work  when  the  fruit  trees  under  test, 
for  example,  must  come  up  for  scrutiny. 
Selection  is  to  be  put  to  one  of  its  uses. 
Selection,  selection  of  the  best,  must  be  ever 
operative  from  the  time  the  plant  is  first 
chosen  from  its  fellows; — it  is  the  continual 
survival  of  the  fittest;  but  now  comes  selec- 
tion on  a  larger  scale.  Perhaps  there  are  a 
hundred  thousand  of  these  fruit  trees  one  or 
two  years  of  age.  They  have  been  planted  at 
Mr.  Burbank's  proving  grounds  at  Sebastopol, 
a  few  miles  from  his  home  in  Santa  Rosa. 
They  have  been  cared  for  with  patience  and 
with  trained  minds  working  over  them,  and 

36 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

now  has  come  their  crucial  test:  each  one 
must  pass  in  review  before  the  eye  of  their 
master. 

In  the  ordinary  course  of  plant -breeding 
each  one  of  these  hundred  thousand  plants 
would  need  to  be  grafted,  or  budded,  each  one 
would  need  individual  care.  It  would  require 
at  least  five  years  before  the  final  test  would 
come  and  a  showing  be  made  of  the  value,  or 
the  worthlessness,  of  each  particular  tree. 
While  no  such  test  in  a  single  experiment  has 
ever  been  made,  it  may  be  stated  in  general 
terms  that  to  graft  and  carry  through  to  the 
end  of  the  five-year  period  a  hundred  thousand 
trees  would  involve  an  outlay  in  actual  money, 
and  in  rental  value  of  the  large  area  of  ground 
necessary  at  least  ten  dollars  per  tree — a  total 
of  one  million  dollars. 

This  is  saved  by  Mr.  Burbank  in  one  work- 
ing day.  It  is  saved  by  that  faculty  which 
is  best  expressed  by  the  term  intuition. 
With  assistants  to  bring  and  carry  away  the 
tiny  slender  trees,  perhaps  now  grown  to  a 
height  of  one  to  three  feet,  he  passes  upon  the 
hundred  thousand  in  a  single  day,  going  over 
them  with  lightning-like  rapidity,  challenging 

37 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

them  the  instant  they  meet  his  eye,  determin- 
ing instantly  whether  or  not  they  are  fit  to 
live.  This  is  selection  in  one  of  its  most  im- 
portant forms  and  carried  on  as  it  never  has 
been  carried  on  before. 

Instantly  he  detects  faults  and  as  quickly 
determines  excellencies.  How  does  he  do  it? 
How  does  a  child  know  enough  to  shun  an 
evil  man?  How  does  a  maiden  know  whether 
the  man  setting  siege  to  her  heart  is  to  be 
trusted  with  her  life?  How  does  a  man  of 
sensitive  fiber  know  instantly,  without  word 
or  sign,  that  his  traveling  companion  is  a  cut- 
throat by  nature,  whether  or  not  he  wear  a 
bandit's  garb? 

Mr.  Burbank  decides  upon  his  trees  by  in- 
tuition. He  puts  a  case  this  way: 

You  may  meet  a  hundred  men,  a  thousand, 
or  even  ten  thousand  men  upon  the  street  of 
a  great  city,  and  instantly,  without  taking  into 
account  any  particular  feature,  you  know  that 
they  are  different.  No  matter  how  similar  in 
general,  the  line  of  difference  is  absolute.  A 
hundred  men  pass  before  a  merchant  seeking 
a  man  for  a  position  of  trust — he  can  tell  at  a 
glance  and  with  seldom  an  error  whether  or 

38 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

not  he  is  going  to  want  any  one  of  them.  He 
does  not  know  how — he  simply  utilizes  his 
intuition;  and  Mr.  Burbank  can  tell  his  trees 
with  even  greater  accuracy. 

One  day  a  loyal  friend  laughingly  suggested 
a  test.  He  was  not  in  doubt  as  to  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  word,  but  he  would  like  visual  demon- 
stration. So  a  series  of  trees  was  passed 
before  Mr.  Burbank  in  the  usual  way.  These 
he  instantly  separated  into  good,  mediocre 
and  poor.  They  were  all  grafted  or  budded 
in  the  usual  way  and  then,  after  several  years, 
when  the  time  for  final  test  came,  the  results 
showed  that,  in  every  instance,  he  had  decided 
the  precise  nature  of  the  tree  and  its  relative 
value. 

When  the  long  period  of  a  given  test  has 
been  concluded,  the  rejected  plants,  shrubs 
or  trees  are  gathered  in  large  bonfires  and 
burned,  and  the  ground  stands  clear  for  an- 
other test.  In  a  single  year  as  many  as  four- 
teen of  these  huge  bonfires  have  been  lighted 
upon  the  hills  of  Sebastopol,  consuming 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  plants.  And  out 
of  all  that  entered  the  test,  probably  not 
more  than  one  or  two  have  been  saved, — all 

39 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

the  rest  have  been  rejected  because  they  did 
not  show  improvement  over  old  forms,  because 
they  did  not  promise  to  add  anything  to  the 
beauty  or  the  utility  of  the  world.  One  plant 
out  of  five  hundred  thousand,  all  the  rest 
destroyed,  the  results  of  all  the  labor  of  a 
decade  ending  in  smoke, — no  wonder  the 
people  living  hard  by,  before  they  came  to 
know  what  it  all  meant,  pronounced  this 
strange  man  going  up  and  down  their  country 
lanes  so  gently  and  silently,  a  wild,  erratic 
creature — indeed,  more  than  one  sagely  held 
him  bereft  of  all  sound  judgment. 

Before  passing  to  a  more  detailed  considera- 
tion of  Mr.  Burbank's  great  achievements  it 
will  be  of  interest  to  note  briefly  some  of  his 
leading  creations.  The  list  includes: 

The  improved  thornless  and  spiculess  edible 
cactus,  food  for  man  and  beast,  to  be  the 
reclamation  of  the  deserts  of  the  world;  the 
primus -berry,  a  union  of  the  raspberry  and 
blackberry,  the  first  recorded  instance  of  the 
creation  of  a  new  species,  together  with  the 
phenomenal  berry  created  from  the  California 
dewberry  and  the  Cuthbert  raspberry,  and  the 
plumcot,  the  union  of  the  plum  and  the 

40 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

apricot,  all  three  the  accomplishment  of  what 
had  been  said  to  be  an  impossibility;  a  plum 
with  no  pit,  one  with  the  flavor  of  a  Bartlett 
pear,  one  having  a  rare  fragrance,  many  plums 
of  great  value,  rapidly  replacing  older  varie- 
ties ;  a  walnut  with  a  shell  so  thin  that  the  birds 
visited  the  branches  and  destroyed  the  nuts, 
necessitating  the  reversion  of  the  process  to 
make  the  shell  of  the  right  thickness;  a 
walnut  bred  with  no  tannin  in  its  meat,  the 
coloring  matter  of  the  skin  which  has  a  dis- 
agreeable taste;  a  tree  which  grows  more 
rapidly  than  any  other  tree  ever  known  in  the 
temperate  zones  of  the  world;  the  Shasta 
daisy,  a  blossom  five  to  seven  inches  in  diame- 
ter, made  out  of  a  wild  field  daisy,  a  Japanese 
and  an  English  daisy;  gladioli  of  greatly 
enhanced  beauty,  taught  to  bloom  around 
their  entire  stem  like  a  hyacinth  instead  of 
the  old  way,  on  one  side;  a  dahlia  with  its 
disagreeable  odor  driven  out  and  in  its  place 
the  odor  of  the  magnolia  blossom ;  a  lily  with 
fragrance  of  the  Parma  violet,  and  a  scentless 
verbena  given  the  intensified  fragrance  of  the 
trailing  arbutus;  a  chestnut  tree  which  bears 
nuts  in  eighteen  months  from  time  of  seed- 

41 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

planting;  fruit  trees  which  will  withstand  freez- 
ing in  bud  and  flower;  a  poppy  so  increased 
in  size  that  it  measures  ten  inches  across  its 
brilliant  bloom;  an  amaryllis  bred  up  from 
two  to  three  inches  to  nearly  a  foot  in  diam- 
eter; a  calla  increased  in  size  until  it  measures 
ten  to  twelve  inches  in  breadth,  and  then,  the 
process  being  reversed,  bred  down  to  less  than 
two  inches;  the  white  blackberry,  a  rare  and 
beautiful  fruit  and  as  toothsome  as  beautiful; 
thousands  of  varieties  of  lilies.  He  has  greatly 
improved  the  plums,  pears,  apples,  cherries, 
grapes,  quinces  and  peaches  by  selection  and 
breeding;  has  developed  many  varieties  of 
flowers,  improving  them  in  color,  hardiness 
and  yield;  and  has  added  much  to  the  pro- 
ductiveness and  edibility  of  vegetables.  Pie- 
plant with  leaves  four  feet  in  diameter,  bearing 
every  day  in  the  year;  a  prune  three  or  four 
times  larger  than  the  ordinary  French  prune 
and  greatly  enriched;  the  pomato,  an  improve- 
ment on  the  poisonous  potato  ball,  producing 
a  rare  fruit  which  grows  upon  the  top  of  a 
potato;  blackberries  without  thorns;  the  im- 
proved Australian  star  flower,  one  of  the 
everlasting  varieties  which  is  to  be  used  for 

42 


GENERAL  METHODS  OF  WORK 

the  decoration  of  ladies'  hats;  a  larkspur 
greatly  enlarged  in  size  and  given  a  delightful 
odor;  many  improved  varieties  of  grasses; 
improved  tobacco; — these  are  among  the 
works  which  have  come  from  his  hand;  others 
promising  even  more  important  results  are 
now  under  way. 

To  study  more  closely  some  of  the  wonder- 
ful achievements  of  this  man  is  like  opening      i/ 
successive  doors  into  some  strange  vast  castle 
where    every  apartment    is    the    scene   of    a 
miracle. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  CREATION  OF  NEW  TREES 

AMONG  the  thousands  of  people  who  visit 
Mr.  Burbank's  home  from  year  to  year 
are  many  who  come  out  of  idle  curiosity,  some 
who  are  prominent  in  scientific  lines,  whom  he 
delights  to  welcome  if  they  are  sincere,  some 
who  come  prepared  to  find  fault  and  to  over- 
throw, if  possible,  what  has  been  built  up. 
One  day  when  there  came  a  man  who  had 
been  deeply  interested  in  forestry,  conversa- 
tion fell  upon  the  breeding  of  trees,  the  pro- 
duction of  new  and  improved  varieties  of  trees 
by  means  of  cross-fertilization  and  selection. 

The  visitor  had  decided  views  upon  the 
subject,  and  at  once  raised  the  question  of  the 
feasibility,  even  of  the  possibility,  of  any  suc- 
cessful experimentation  in  tree-breeding,  such 
as  that  Mr.  Burbank  had  carried  on  in  other 
plant  life.  In  the  first  place,  the  experiments 
would  need  to  be  carried  over  through  a  series 
of  generations,  and,  so  slow  the  growth  of  the 

44 


THE    CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

trees,  the  man  who  began  them  would  long 
have  been  dead  before  anything  like  important 
results  would  have  been  attained,  thus  largely 
eliminating  continuity  of  effort  and  satisfac- 
tory personal  supervision.  Again,  what  was 
there  to  be  gained  in  attempting  to  improve 
the  trees  of  the  world  as  they  stand?  And, 
again,  there  was  the  improbability  of  anything 
like  satisfactory  results  in  any  fertilization— 
the  whole  scheme  was  interesting  but  specula- 
tive. Nor  was  there  any  practical  bearing,— 
where  could  there  be  found  any  scientific 
value  in  the  plan? 

In  all  lines  of  Mr.  Burbank's  work  the  most 
satisfactory  answer  to  the  arguments  of  those 
who  hold  that,  because  such  and  such  a  thing 
has  never  yet  been  accomplished,  therefore,  it 
cannot  be  accomplished,  is  a  fact.  It  was  so 
in  this  instance.  All  that  was  necessary  to  do 
was  to  point  to  a  single  row  of  trees  standing 
in  front  of  his  home  at  Santa  Rosa,  just  out- 
side the  white  fence  that  surrounds  his 
grounds.  They  are  noble  trees,  tall,  wide- 
spreading,  stately,  pleasant  to  look  upon,  dig- 
nified and  substantial  as  trees  go,  not  weak  or 
irresolute,  possessing  that  indefinable  attribute 

45 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

which,  even  in  trees,  we  call  character.  These 
trees  answered  every  argument  advanced. 
They  were  the  result  of  breeding  and  selec- 
tion; they  had  not  been  long  in  growing,  not 
over  a  dozen  years;  they  were  economically 
important. 

Some  ten  or  fifteen  years  before,  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  had  studied  the  question  of  tree  improve- 
ment with  great  care.  All  sides  of  the  plant 
life  of  the  world  appeal  to  him.  If  he  can  see 
a  chance  for  improvement,  it  matters  not  to 
him  what  the  obstacles  in  the  way  or  what  the 
contentions  of  those  who  are  chained  to  tradi- 
tions. He  had  long  seen  a  chance  for  marked 
improvement  in  certain  varieties  of  the  wal- 
nut. He  took  an  English  walnut  and  a  com- 
mon California  black  walnut,  as  types  on 
which  to  work,  crossed  them  by  fertilization, 
raised  seedlings  from  these,  then  selected  the 
very  best  of  the  progeny;  and  so  bred  for- 
ward, ever  picking  out  those  which  ap- 
proached nearest  his  ideal  until,  at  last,  he 
had  a  set  of  hybrid  seedlings  which  he  was 
willing  to  trust  to  themselves. 

A  half  dozen  of  the  trees  were  set  out  in 
the  hard  earth  in  front  of  his  house  in  the 

46 


THE    CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

street,  where  they  would  receive  no  cultivation 
and  no  irrigation  in  days  of  drought.  They 
were  left  to  shift  for  themselves.  Fourteen 
years  passed  and,  in  1905,  the  trees  had  be- 
come nearly  eighty  feet  in  height,  their  branch- 
spread  was  fully  seventy-five  feet,  their  trunks 
were  fully  two  feet  in  diameter  at  the  height 
of  a  man's  head,  and  not  much  less  than  that 
at  the  point  of  the  first  branch,  some  twelve 
to  fifteen  feet  above  the  ground.  The  wood 
is  of  fine  grain,  hard,  very  compact,  having  a 
lustrous,  silky  effect  and  taking  a  high  polish. 
Sometimes  the  annual  growth  will  be  an  inch 
or  more,  the  successive  layers  giving  to  the 
sawn  timber  interesting  and  novel  effects. 
The  wood  is  suitable  for  furniture  manufac- 
ture, for  inside  furnishings  of  houses,  or  for 
any  place  where  open  ornamental  woodwork 
treatment  is  employed.  For  fuel  the  wood 
gives  a  steady,  strong  heat,  combining  com- 
parative ease  in  cutting  with  the  hardness 
essential  for  good  burning. 

Just  across  the  street  from  Mr.  Burbank's 
home  stands  another  row  of  walnut  trees. 
They  have  been  growing  a  little  over  twice  as 
long  as  the  ones  on  Mr.  Burbank's  side  of  the 

47 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

road.  They  stand  about  fifteen  feet  high,  they 
are  perhaps  six  inches  in  trunk  diameter. 
These  trees  belong  to  a  past  generation;  the 
noble  trees  on  his  side  of  the  road  are  of  the 
progressive  today.  In  fourteen  years  the  new 
tree  grew  six  times  as  much  as  the  older  tree 
had  grown  in  thirty  years.  In  addition  to 
their  specifically  economic  value,  the  new 
trees  are  very  beautiful,  making  an  ideal  tree 
for  shade  in  private  grounds,  for  an  avenue 
approaching  some  country  estate,  to  over-arch 
in  gothic  strength  some  beautiful  city  street. 
Along  with  the  production  of  this  tree 
which  Mr.  Burbank  named  the  "Paradox"  he 
worked  on  a  different  combination,  though 
produced  in  the  same  way.  The  Paradox  was 
particularly  suited  to  regions  like  California, 
where  winters  are  not  severe.  He  wanted 
another  tree,  as  rapid  in  growth,  as  fine  for 
timber,  as  valuable  for  fuel,  which  would  grow 
in  any  climate  where  the  hardy  northern  black 
walnut  would  grow.  So  he  joined  together  the 
native  California  black  walnut  and  the  old- 
fashioned  New  England  black  walnut,  produc- 
ing a  new  hybrid  which  he  named  the  "Royal." 
This  tree  has  answered  all  the  demands  made 

48 


THE    CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

upon  it,  and  is  fully  equal  to  the  Paradox.  I 
recall  seeing  one  of  these  Royal  trees  standing 
isolated  in  the  front  yard  of  a  fruit  ranch  on 
the  road  to  Sebastopol.  It  had  been  set  out,  a 
tiny  sapling,  at  about  .the  same  time  the  trees 
were  set  out  in  the  street  in  front  of  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  home,  and  in  the  dozen  years  it  had 
grown  to  magnificent  proportions,  completely 
dwarfing  the  other  trees  in  the  vicinity,  even 
the  large  native  live-oaks  which  are  so  conspic- 
uous a  feature  of  the  northern  California  land- 
scape. Each  of  the  new  walnuts  grows  in 
comely  fashion,  having  no  bad  habits  and 
readily  yielding  to  the  pruning-knife  or  to 
training,  in  case  a  branch  shows  any  signs  of 
ungraceful  waywardness. 

In  a  general  way,  the  physical  characteristics 
of  each  tree  are  quite  like  those  of  the  other. 

These  trees  have  been  bred  for  purely  com- 
mercial ends,  though  they  possess  rare  beauty 
as  well.  The  nuts,  at  first,  were  not  thought 
to  have  any  special  value,  the  object  in  the 
scheme  of  breeding  being  to  develop  the  tree 
itself  rather  than  its  fruit,  but,  as  the  experi- 
ment progressed,  it  was  found  that  certain  of 
the  seedlings  produced  fine  hybrid  walnuts, 

49 


v/ 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

different  in  form  from  the  parent  nuts  and  far 
more  abundant,  while  possessing  a  unique  and 
delightful  flavor.  The  leaves  upon  the  trees,  as 
is  noted  in  another  chapter,  are  of  many  inter- 
esting varieties,  and  when  rubbed  in  the  fingers 
or  crushed,  or  even  when  merely  handled,  give 
out  a  delightful  fragrance  somewhat  like  that 
of  the  apple,  but  as  powerful  and  lasting  as 
that  of  a  rose  or  a  lily. 

But  to  come  to  the  main  life-plan  of  the 
new  trees,  it  appears  that  they  are  in  some 
ways  the  most  important  contribution  Mr. 
Burbank  has  made  to  the  specifically  commer- 
cial life  of  the  world.  A  simple  computation 
will  illustrate  this, — the  results  are  so  remark- 
able as  to  challenge  one's  credulity,  but  they 
are  results  based  solely  upon  facts,  unadorned 
by  any  speculation. 

Mr.  Burbank  says  that  for  the  best  commer- 
cial purposes  the  trees  of  either  variety  should 
be  set  out  not  less  than  forty  feet  apart,  in 
order  to  allow  ample  space  for  each.  The 
root  system  is  very  extensive,  and  there  must 
be  plenty  of  room  for  each  tree  below  ground, 
as  well  as  large  allowance  for  the  spread  of  the 
branches.  About  thirty-six  trees  to  the  acre  is 

50 


THE    CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

the  number  he  thinks  will  produce  the  best 
results.  At  the  end  of  twelve  years  each  tree 
will  offer  a  clear  trunk  without  branches  which, 
when  stripped  of  its  outer  slabs  and  squared, 
will  be  at  least  fifteen  feet  long  by  a  foot  and  a 
half  square.  This  will  give  three  hundred  feet 
of  clear  timber,  board  measure,  per  tree.  Black 
walnut  lumber  has  been  steadily  disappearing 
from  the  market.  Year  by  year  it  has  as  steadily 
increased  in  price  until  it  has  now  become  one 
of  the  rare  woods,  running  in  cost  from  $200 
per  thousand  feet,  board  measure,  to  $600 
or  $700  per  thousand  feet  for  particularly  fine 
pieces. 

Taking  but  $250  as  the  average  price  of 
black  walnut  lumber  per  thousand,  certainly  a 
conservative  figure,  at  the  end  of  the  twelve- 
year  period  each  tree  is  worth  approximately 
$80.  The  acre  yield  would  be  $2,880.  For  an 
average  farm  of  160  acres  the  revenue  for  the 
twelve  years,  with  no  outlay  save  the  cost  of 
planting,  not  over  twenty-five  cents  per  tree, 
taxes  upon  the  land,  and  interest  upon  money 
invested,  would  be  a  little  over  $460,000.  This 
does  not  take  into  account  the  value  of  the 
branches,  and  the  refuse  slabs  of  the  mill-saw- 

51 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

ing,  which  for  fuel  would  amount  to  at  least 
four  cords  per  tree  —  about  $24,000  for  the 
total  farm,  or  a  grand  total  for  the  160  acres 
for  lumber  and  fuel  amounting  to  $485,000. 

These  figures  seem  absolutely  preposterous, 
but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  trees 
are  now  to  be  seen  growing  at  the  end  of  a 
fourteen-year  period,  and  that  every  item  has 
been  carefully  verified;  —  hence  the  conclusion 
is  legitimate,  even  if  staggering.  Naturally, 
should  everybody  go  in  for  hybrid  walnut 
raising,  the  price  of  this  now  rare  lumber  would 
be  reduced,  but,  so  valuable  is  it  in  so  many 
ways, — for  furniture,  bank  and  office  furnish- 
ings, dwelling  interiors,  for  wainscoting  and 
ceilings  where  costly  woods  are  sought, — and 
so  remarkable  is  it  as  a  producer  of  wood  for 
fuel,  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  there  would 
soon  be  a  glut  in  the  market. 

In  conversation  with  a  practical  manufac- 
turer of  lumber  to  whom  this  new  work  of 
Mr.  Burbank  was  a  revelation,  he  raised  the 
point  that,  so  far  as  his  knowledge  went,  fast- 
growing  trees  were  usually  trees  of  soft  grain 
which  were  not  suitable  for  fine  finishing. 
The  strange  fact  is,  however,  that  these  new 

52 


The  central  poppy,  a  brilliant  scarlet  with  purple  center,  is  the  offsprin; 
of  the  other  two.  The  one  to  the  left,  Papaver  pilosum,  a  delicate  orange 
the  one  to  the  right,  Papaver  somniferum.  the  "Bride  poppy,"  a  pur 
white.  Leaves  of  each  are  shown. 


THE    CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

trees  have  apparently  defied  all  precedent, — 
they  are  not  only  of  phenomenal  rapidity  of 
growth  but  they  preserve  all  the  hardness, 
tenacity  and  evenness  of  grain  of  their  slow- 
growing  ancestors.  When  I  raised  this  point 
in  conversation  with  Mr.  Burbank,  he  sprang 
up  from  his  chair  in  his  characteristically  ener- 
getic manner,  was  out  of  the  room  in  a  trice, 
and  as  swiftly  returned  from  his  repair -shop 
bearing  a  piece  from  a  huge  branch  which  had 
been  cut  off  from  one  of  the  trees.  It  had 
been  roughly  squared  by  the  workman  and 
part  of  one  side  had  been  planed.  The  wood 
was  unusually  heavy  to  the  hand,  more  like 
some  dense  tropic  wood  and  very  hard.  It 
was  of  a  beautiful  color,  the  finish  even  by  the 
plane  alone  showing  its  possibilities  for  taking 
a  high  polish.  It  will  make  a  rare  wood  in  its 
lighter  color  and  will  assume  the  darker  wal- 
nut color  when  it  is  soaked  for  many  months 
in  water,  as  the  black  walnut  is  soaked  before 
sawing  in  order  to  give  it  the  peculiar  dark 
hue.  In  point  of  fact,  however,  there  are  no 
doubt  many  who  would  prefer  the  lighter 
satiny  tints  to  the  darker.  The  heavy  annual 
growth  of  the  tree,  forming  such  large  layers, 

53 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

adds  another  and  distinctive  note  of  interest 
to  the  grain  of  the  finished  wood. 

In  order  to  secure  the  opinion  of  practical 
men  upon  the  new  wood,  samples  were  sub- 
mitted to  wood  -  workers,  furniture  finishers, 
carvers,  painters,  and  merchant  lumbermen. 
It  was  particularly  interesting  to  note  the  ex- 
pression upon  the  faces  of  these  matter-of-fact 
men  as  they  saw,  the  first  of  all  industrialists 
to  look  upon  it,  this  new  factor  in  the  manu- 
facturing forces  of  the  world.  After  the  initial 
exclamation  of  wonderment,  out  would  come 
a  pocket  rule,  to  measure  the  annular  growth, 
each  man  seeming  to  doubt  his  own  eyes. 
Then  a  sharp  knife  would  be  whipped  out  to 
test  the  wood  for  hardness ;  or,  if  it  were  a 
painter  or  finisher  at  work,  brushes  were  at 
once  dropped  and  a  close  and  critical  exam- 
ination and  test  of  the  grain  of  the  wood 
followed,  volleys  of  questions  being  fired 
meanwhile. 

Welding  together  many  opinions  expressed 
y  by  these  practical  men,  these  statements  may 
be  taken  as  the  consensus: 

The  production  of  a  hard  wood  of  the 
character  of  this  at  such  a  phenomenal  rate  of 

54 


THE    CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

growth  would  be  considered  an  impossibility 
without  the  evidence  of  a  man's  own  eyes. 

The  new  wood  is  as  hard  as  the  old-fash- 
ioned black  walnut,  somewhat  harder  when 
fully  seasoned. 

It  has  a  finer  grain  than  the  old  walnut  and 
takes  a  higher  polish. 

It  is  nearer  the  mahogany  grades  than  any 
other  walnut  and  remarkably  like  some  of 
the  tropic  mahoganies. 

Its  possibilities  when  quartered  or  when 
sawn  for  other  novel  effects  in  veneers,  are 
large. 

The  width  of  the  annual  growth  makes  it 
peculiarly  suitable  when  sawn  in  long  strips 
for  wainscoting  and  like  effects. 

While  the  fiber  of  the  wood  is  hard,  it  is 
fine  for  working  as  well  as  for  polishing. 

Nearly  every  man  spoke  of  the  possibilities 
of  this  new  tree  in  rapidly  re -foresting  the 
earth,  as  well  as  of  the  fact  that  it  would  give 
a  marked  impetus  to  the  use  of  hard  wood 
for  fuel,  while  marking  what  might  be  called 
a  new  era  in  manufacturing. 

The  trees  of  these  two  varieties  which  Mr. 
Burbank  has  produced  have  been  given  no 

55 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

attention  whatever.  He  says  that  by  culti- 
vation and  irrigation  they  would  probably  be 
led  to  produce  as  much  timber  in  eight  or 
ten  years  as  they  have  done  in  fourteen  years 
with  no  aid.  The  Paradox  will  grow  in  any 
climate  similar  to  that  of  California,  anywhere 
where  the  English  walnut  will  grow;  the 
Royal  will  grow  anywhere  in  the  United 
States,  or  any  other  country,  where  the  hardy 
New  England  black  walnut  will  grow. 

The  secret  of  these  wonderful  trees  lies  in 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Burbank  selected  them  from 
the  most  rapid -growing  of  all  the  many 
thousands  of  seedlings  he  had  under  test,  at 
the  same  time  taking  into  account  all  the 
other  characteristics  that  were  essential.  Enor- 
mous rapidity  of  growth,  so  to  use  the  words, 
in  the  early  life  of  the  seedling  has  been  main- 
tained in  after  years  so  that  these  two  trees 
now  stand  at  the  head  —  the  most  rapid  -  grow- 
ing trees  in  the  temperate  zones  of  the  globe. 

They  are  deciduous,  losing  their  leaves  like 
the  elm  and  maple  in  the  late  autumn. 

In  this,  as  in  so  many  other  lines  of  Mr. 
Burbank's  investigations,  a  new  field  is  now 
opened  up  for  practical  work.  It  now  becomes 

56 


THE    CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

possible  to  produce  trees  at  will  for  practi- 
cally any  purpose, — for  ornamentation,  for 
shade,  for  fuel,  for  manufacturing  purposes; 
to  breed  together  trees  from  widely  separated 
quarters  of  the  globe,  each  having  some  de- 
sirable characteristic  the  other  has  not,  uniting 
the  best  of  both  in  the  child  of  the  two,  and 
then  selecting  and  selecting  through  a  series 
of  years  until  the  desired  end  is  reached. 
Hardiness,  longevity,  rapidity  of  growth,  sym- 
metry of  form,  adaptability, — all  play  their 
part,  all  may  be  called  upon  to  act  at  the 
proper  moment.  Mr.  Burbank  has  given  deep 
thought  to  this  branch  of  breeding,  realizing 
the  vast  importance  to  the  world  in  any  suc- 
cessful plan  for  maintaining  and  increasing  its 
tree  life.  Upon  this  point  he  says: 

"The  possibilities  of  improvement  in  trees 
are  so  great  as  to  make  it  seem  almost  an  ex- 
aggeration to  state  them.  Trees  may  be  bred 
together  within  certain  specific  limits,  to  pro- 
duce other  trees  of  different  character  at  will, 
combining  the  characters  of  the  parents  or 
developing  wholly  new  ones.  In  human  life 
pre-natal  influences  are  marvelously  powerful 
and  extraordinarily  diverse,  and  the  spiritual 

57 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

pre-natal  influences  are  immeasurably  more 
powerful  than  the  physical  ones.  So  that 
while  the  future  no  doubt  holds  much  for  the 
good  of  the  race  in  the  matter  of  an  improved 
human  stock,  these  influences  are  at  present, 
at  least,  far  too  diverse  and  powerful  to  be 
mastered  or  even  taken  clearly  into  account. 
A  single  and  apparently  very  slight  thing  may 
influence  a  whole  human  life,  indeed,  may 
influence  many  lives  directly  and  indirectly 
through  generations.  Not  so  with  a  tree.  Its 
life  is  more  fixed  and  stable.  It  has  been  fol- 
lowing the  same  influences  and  never  depart- 
ing to  any  extent  from  a  given  course  for 
centuries  upon  centuries.  It  does  not  yield 
easily.  It  is  stubborn,  persistent,  it  must  be 
pressed  upon  harder  and  harder. 

"  But  when  it  yields,  it  yields  unreservedly. 
Supply  the  right  amount  of  pressure  and  the 
thing  is  done.  Then,  when  its  new  life  is  fixed, 
it  will  persist  in  the  new  way  as  it  has  in  the 
old.  Take,  for  example,  a  tree  which  produces 
pitch,  or  maple -sugar,  or  tannin,  or  camphor, 
or  quinine.  Now  if  the  ability  of  any  one  of 
these  trees  for  producing  its  valuable  product 
is  fixed,  but  its  capacity  meager,  this  capacity 

58 


THE    CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

may  be  increased  at  will  simply  by  breeding 
for  this  one  trait  and  by  selecting  with  this 
end  constantly  in  view.  Thus,  a  tree  or  a 
whole  forest,  for  the  principle  covers  all,  may 
be  bred  to  produce  a  vastly  increased  supply 
of  any  one  of  these  commodities,  double  and 
treble  its  former  amount,  thereby  becoming 
immensely  more  valuable.  So  in  trees  whose 
bark  may  be  valuable  for  coloring  matter,  the 
coloring  matter  may  be  increased  at  will, 
making  the  tree  that  much  more  important 
from  a  commercial  point  of  view.  Any  de- 
sirable attribute  of  a  tree  may  be  increased  at 
will.  There  is  work  enough  to  be  done  in  this 
line  for  the  government  to  put  at  work  a 
thousand  experts,  and  the  possibilities  ahead 
o'f  them  are  so  great  that  the  whole  face  of 
nature  might  be  changed  by  them  by  an  in- 
telligent, patient  and  systematic  following  of 
breeding  and  selection. 

"Take  the  line  of  producing  trees  upon 
which  to  graft  others  in  order  to  hurry  these 
others  onward  to  quicker  fruitage.  For  exam- 
ple, we  will  say  a  certain  prune  has  very  desir- 
able qualities — it  is  high  in  sugar -content, 
large  in  size,  admirable  for  curing  and  packing. 

59 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

But  it  has  an  inadequate  root  service,  and 
when  it  comes  to  bearing  on  its  own  stock,  it 
soon  exhausts  itself  and  becomes  unable  to 
support  the  top;  it  gradually  produces  less 
and  less  and  of  a  steadily  deteriorating  quality. 
What  is  to  be  done  ?  Why,  simply  give  it  a 
new  foundation  upon  which  to  build.  The 
almond  grows  very  rapidly,  several  times  as 
fast  as  the  prune.  Graft  the  prune  upon 
the  almond  when  the  almond  has  its  root 
system  established,  say  at  five  years  of  age, 
and  let  the  almond  do  the  hard  work.  See 
how  the  almond  will  send  the  prune  bounding 
forward!  It  gives  the  prune  its  needed  basic 
supply  of  food,  and  so  the  prune  has  nothing 
to  do  but  to  go  onward,  bearing  abundantly. 
"  There  are  certain  trees  that  are  hustlers,— 
strong,  vigorous,  fast-growing,  self-reliant, 
powerful  to  resist  untoward  circumstances. 
These  must  be  made  to  help  their  weaker 
brethren,  to  give  them  better  commercial 
qualities.  Take  it  in  the  line  of  a  walnut  bred 
for  fuel,  to  say  nothing  of  lumber  for  manufac- 
ture. Suppose  a  man  buys  a  walnut  tree  large 
enough  to  set  out  and  pays  fifty  cents  for  it,  and 
in  ten  years  it  will  produce  ten  cords  of  wood 

60 


C 

A 


,Q 
>> 
^3 


THE    CREATION    OF   NEW   TREES 

worth  five  dollars  a  cord — isn't  the  money 
well  invested  ?  Isn't  it  better  to  pay  fifty 
cents  for  such  a  tree  and  get  such  results  than 
to  get  another  tree  for  nothing  which  in  ten 
years  will  produce  one  cord  ?  Suppose  a  man 
has  a  fine  rich  walnut  or  other  nut  which  will 
produce  ten  times  as  many  nuts  when  grafted 
upon  a  faster  growing  tree  as  it  will  pro- 
duce upon  its  own  roots — doesn't  it  pay  to 
graft  it? 

"In  considering  the  development  of  new 
kinds  of  trees  and  in  improving  old  ones,  it 
must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  no  two 
trees  are  alike.  Two  trees  may  start  out,  for 
example,  upon  apparently  precisely  the  same 
conditions,  but  one  will  grow  a  foot  while  the 
other  is  growing  an  inch.  Oftentimes  among 
a  lot  of  seedlings  one  will  grow  from  a  hundred 
to  five  hundred  times  as  much  in  a  season  as 
its  comrade  raised  from  precisely  the  same  kind 
of  seed.  This  fast-growing  one  is  the  one  to 
choose,  and  by  selection  it  may  be  developed 
still  more  until,  as  in  the  case  of  the  walnut  I 
have  bred,  it  stands  at  the  head  of  all  trees  in 
the  temperate  zones  for  rapidity  of  growth. 
Both  this  fast-growing  seedling  and  its  slower 

61 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

comrade   had   the   same   chance,  but   one   of 
them  was  a  hustler  and  the  other  was  not. 

"The  fact  is  too  often  lost  sight  of,  or  not 
known  at  all,  that  the  tops  of  the  trees  abso- 
lutely govern  the  roots.  The  leaves  are  the 
lungs  and  the  stomach  of  the  tree.  The  food 
is  digested,  so  to  speak,  in  the  leaves  and 
there  made  accessible  for  the  tree  as  a  whole. 
If  a  tree  be  fine  of  foliage  it  will  be  powerful 
in  all  its  parts,  because  it  has  the  capacity  to 
take  so  much  nourishment  from  the  air,— 
four -fifths  of  it  being  nitrogen,  which  is  the 
chief  source  of  supply  for  plant -food.  The 
sun,  too,  plays  its  important  part, — condensed 
sunshine  and  condensed  air  are  the  chief 
articles  of  the  tree's  diet. 

"Each  tree,  too,  has  its  own  individual 
characteristics  and  traits,  as  well  as  being 
absolutely  unlike  all  other  trees  in  form  and 
structure,  and  these  traits  must  be  studied  and 
taken  carefully  into  consideration.  Take  the 
one  act  of  fruit -bearing.  I  find  that  in  certain 
instances  I  have  bred  trees  to  bear  too  much 
fruit,  the  matter  was  overdone.  It  came  about 
by  constantly  selecting  from  seedling  trees 
which  were  heavy  fruit-bearers,  all  the  time 

62 


THE    CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

seeking  to  make  even  these  increase.  The 
result  has  been  in  some  cases  that  I  have  had 
to  go  backward  again  to  a  point  where  the 
tree  could  produce  its  maximum  of  fruit 
without  imperiling  its  efficiency. 
,  "Bear  in  mind  that,  in  the  production  of 
any  new  tree,  selection  plays  the  all-important 
part.  First,  one  must  get  clearly  in  mind  the 
kind  of  tree  he  wants,  then  breed  and  select  to 
that  end,  always  choosing  through  a  series  of 
years  the  trees  which  are  approaching  nearest 
the  ideal,  and  rejecting  all  others. 

"There  is  another  important  feature  of  a 
tree  to  be  used  for  manufacture, — its  grain. 
It  is  perfectly  feasible  to  breed  a  tree  up  to  a 
certain  general  style  of  grain,  by  constantly 
selecting  for  this  special  characteristic.  As  no 
two  trees  are  absolutely  alike  on  their  exte- 
riors, so  it  is  with  the  interior  of  the  tree. 
Cut  open  a  series  of  cross-bred  seedlings — 
some  are  dark,  some  are  light,  some  are  close- 
grained,  some  are  coarse,  some  show  tenden- 
cies toward  beautiful  markings,  some  are  plain, 
some  have  wavy  grain,  some  have  straight. 
So  pick  out  from  them  the  grain  you  want, 
and  continue  selecting  and  breeding  with 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

this  stock  as  a  basis;  finally  you  have  the 
perfected  tree  just  as  you  wish  it.  Once  pro- 
duced, it  is,  save  in  minor  essentials,  unchang- 
ing. You  can  change  the  grain  of  the  tree, 
or  its  bark,  or  its  top,  or  its  trunk,  or  its 
leaves,  or  its  roots,  or  its  quantity  of  quinine, 
or  sugar,  or  pitch,  or  what  not; — you  can 
hardly  think  of  anything  you  cannot  do  writh 
it.  You  can  make  it  grow  tall  or  short,  huge 
of  girth  or  slender,  narrow  of  branch  or  broad, 
you  can  change  the  number  of  leaves  it  will 
bear  upon  a  branch  and  their  shape.  You  can 
chemically  transform  it,  too.  Of  course,  the 
habits  of  the  tree  must  first  be  firmly  enough 
fixed  through  sufficient  generations  so  that  it 
will  not  revert — then  it  will  go  onward  in  its 
new  course ;  or,  by  grafting,  at  once. 

"There  are  certain  things  which  do  not 
seem  possible,  certain  crosses  of  trees  of  widely 
separated  species  that  seem  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. Still,  while  these  crosses  may  never 
become  what  might  be  termed  commercially 
effective,  not  practical,  in  other  words,  yet 
they  may  be  what  may  be  called  scientifically 
successful.  In  other  words,  the  actual  act  of 
crossing  may  be  accomplished  where  it  has 

64 


THE   CREATION    OF   NEW   TREES 

apparently  been  impossible.  But  this  much 
may  be  done  even  in  these  remote  cases: 

"Two  given  species  will  not  readily  yield 
to  union.  Make  a  cross  between  them,  take 
the  seeds  of  the  progeny  and  plant  them. 
Cross  two  other  diverse  species  in  the  same 
way  and  plant  the  seeds  of  their  progeny. 
Then  to  the  progeny  of  the  first  union  unite 
the  progeny  of  the  second,  and  from  this  later 
union  you  may  sometimes  get  marvelously 
satisfactory  results.  The  outcome  of  either 
main  cross  would  be  unsatisfactory,  perhaps 
unimportant;  the  union  of  their  progeny  may 
obviate  the  difficulty.  The  possibilities  of 
such  crossing  and  its  subsequent  selection  are 
inconceivably  great. 

"It  is  my  opinion  that  one  of  the  most 
important,  in  some  ways  the  most  important 
of  all  the  many  fields  open  now  to  the  plant- 
breeder,  is  this  one  of  the  production  of  new 
and  the  improving  of  old  trees.  I  believe  it 
to  be  of  immense  significance  commercially." 

Closely  allied  to  this  production  of  a  tree  is 
the  improvement  of  the  product  of  the  tree, 
its  nuts.  Deciding  that  it  would  be  well  to 
have  an  English  walnut  with  a  thinner  shell, 

65 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

Mr.  Burbank  began  a  series  of  tests  looking 
to  that  end  by  constantly  selecting  seedling 
trees  whose  nuts  bore  toward  the  point  aimed 
at.  They  responded  heartily  to  the  demands 
made  upon  them,  so  readily,  indeed,  that  one 
day  the  nuts  were  found  so  thin  of  shell  the 
birds  could  pick  through  them.  This  required 
an  absolutely  opposite  breeding,  so  the  trees 
were  bred  backward  again  along  the  path  they 
had  come  until  just  the  required  thickness  of 
shell  was  reached.  So  it  was  also  with 
almonds,  the  shell  being  bred  to  suit,  while 
similar  results  may  be  reached  with  other  nuts. 
At  the  same  time,  general  excellence  and 
the  question  of  productivity  were  under  con- 
sideration constantly,  with  the  result  that  a 
finer,  larger  and  more  prolific  nut  was  pro- 
duced. In  line  with  what  Mr.  Burbank  has 
done  with  grafting  a  physically  insignificant 
tree  upon  a  stronger  one,  a  California  riut- 
grower  grafted  Mr.  Burbank's  new  soft- shelled 
English  walnut  upon  a  native  black  walnut 
of  rapid  growth.  The  average  annual  produc- 
tion of  nuts  per  tree  in  the  region  had  been 
from  seventy  to  one  hundred  pounds.  The 
black  walnut  tree,  when  grafted  with  this  new 

66 


THE   CREATION   OF   NEW   TREES 

English  walnut,  produced  on  an  average  four 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  nuts  per  season, 
in  some  cases  as  high  as  five  hundred  and 
fifty-two  pounds. 

In  the  skin  or  outer  layer  of  the  meat  of 
the  walnut  is  more  or  less  tannin,  a  substance 
which,  when  present  in  considerable  quanti- 
ties, relatively,  gives  the  skin  a  dark  appear- 
ance and  makes  the  meat  more  or  less  bitter 
and  disagreeable  to  the  taste.  In  some  wild 
nuts  when  it  appears  in  larger  quantities,  it 
becomes  positively  dangerous.  While  the  out- 
side of  the  walnut  is  commercially  changed 
by  bleaching,  the  inside  is  not  reached  and 
the  tannin  has  remained.  Mr.  Burbank  thought 
that  if  Nature  had  allowed  this  undesirable 
substance  to  enter  into  the  walnut,  she  could 
be  induced  to  give  it  up,  so  he  set  about 
breeding  the  tannin  out,  succeeding  at  last  in 
driving  it  entirely  away,  leaving  the  meat  a 
pure  creamy  white.  At  the  same  time,  he 
developed  the  size  of  the  nut  also,  making  it 
from  a  quarter  to  a  third  larger  than  its 
parents. 

Turning  his  attention  to  the  chestnut,  he 
decided  to  relieve  it  of  some  of  its  bur,  and 

67 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

so  by  years  of  selection  and  breeding,  the  basis 
of  all  this  work,  he  changed  the  thickness 
and  the  ^substance  of  the  bur  at  will,  finally 
demonstrating  that,  if  necessary,  the  outer 
portion  of  the  bur  might  be  wholly  done 
away  with,  leaving  a  smooth  surface.  To  breed 
it  too  thin,  however,  would  be  undesirable,  the 
bur  being  the  nut's  protection  against  birds. 

The  life  character  of  the  chestnut  was  also 
changed  in  marked  degree.  He  set  about 
producing  a  chestnut  that  would  bear  nuts 
early  in  life.  Ordinarily  it  would  be  all  the 
way  from  ten  to  twenty-five  years  before  a 
chestnut  tree  raised  from  seed  would  begin  to 
bear.  Mr.  Burbank  decided  that  was  alto- 
gether too  slow  for  modern  days,  so  he  has 
made  the  chestnut  bear  nuts  at  the  age  of  a 
year  and  a  half;  indeed,  nuts  have  come  upon 
trees  not  over  seven  months  old. 

In  this  way  the  commercial  possibilities  are 
suggested — where  Nature  does  not  move  fast 
enough,  she  must  be  helped  to  more  rapid 
progress. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  adornment  of 
the  world,  including  with  this  that  splendid 
sentiment  which  is  becoming  more  and  more 

68 


THE    CREATION    OF   NEW   TREES 

manifest,  looking  toward  the  preservation  of 
forests  and  the  rapid  re-foresting  of  denuded 
areas,  as  well  as  from  the  purely  economic 
point  of  view,  looking  to  the  creation  of  new 
types  of  trees  better  than  the  old  and  bringing 
the  old  up  to  a  higher  standard  of  efficiency, 
Mr.  Burbank's  work  in  tree -breeding  is  of 
commanding  importance.  In  itself  it  is  quite 
sufficient  to  have  made  the  reputation  of  any 
plant-breeder  in  the  world. 


69 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  AMARYLLIS  AND  THE  POPPY 

A  MONG  the  thousands  of  letters  which 
J-^-  Mr.  Burbank  receives  from,  all  quarters 
of  the  globe  are  very  many  having  unusual 
interest  because  of  the  prominence  of  the 
writers  and  because  of  their  interest  in  the 
remarkable  work  of  which  they  make  inquiry, 
but  he  has  seldom  received  one  of  such  pecu- 
liar interest  as  that  which  came  from  a  pro- 
fessor of  a  far  eastern  college.  It  told  of  the 
loss  of  a  little  son.  In  the  depths  of  his  great 
bereavement  the  father  had  sought  for  some 
memorial  which  should  be  a  visible  token  oi 
the  rare  life  that  had  gone.  So  he  chose  one 
of  the  exquisitely  beautiful  amaryllis  plants 
which  Mr.  Burbank  had  created,  to  plant  upon 
the  child's  grave.  The  letter  told  of  the  splen- 
did blossoms  that  came  and  of  the  deep  sat- 
isfaction that  such  a  monument  had  been 
chosen.  The  flower  was  of  rare  color  and 
great  size;  it  would  be  a  lasting  memorial 

70 


THE   AMARYLLIS   AND   THE   POPPY 

He  must  be  blind  to  all  sense  of  color  who 
is  not  deeply  impressed  by  the  brilliancy  of 
these  magnificent  blossoms  when  seen  in  great 
masses.  Through  years  of  the  most  patient 
and  painstaking  labor  Mr.  Burbank  has  devel- 
oped the  amaryllis  from  a  flower  having  a  few 
inches  of  breadth  until  it  is  very  nearly  a  foot 
in  diameter  and  with  every  shade  of  crimson 
or  pink  or  scarlet  and  many  rare  and  unusual 
blendings,  all  the  colors  being  greatly  intensi- 
fied. The  usual  methods  of  breeding  and 
selecting  were  followed.  It  was  found  that 
the  huge  flowers  were  far  too  heavy  for  the 
ordinary  amaryllis  stem,  so  the  complete  trans- 
formation of  the  plant  itself  was  planned. 
The  stem  was  changed  to  meet  the  demands 
of  the  heavy  flower,  a  low  stout  plant  result- 
ing, not  more  than  eighteen  inches  high,  with 
thick  leaves  and  sturdy  trunk.  When  a  bed 
of  these  new  amaryllis  is  in  blossom  it  pre- 
sents a  spectacle  of  rare  beauty,  the  great 
gorgeous  blossoms  illuminating  the  whole 
surroundings  as  with  crimson  flames. 

Under  ground  even  more  wonderful  changes 
have  taken  place.  If  you  take  two  amaryllis 
bulbs,  one  of  the  old  type,  one  of  the  new, 

71 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

and  place  them  side  by  side,  you  will  see  an 
even  greater  contrast  than  that  which  ap- 
pears in  the  blossoms.  The  ordinary  bulb 
will  be  two  to  three  inches  in  diameter  at  the 
largest  part  and  will  weigh  a  pound  or  a  little 
over.  The  new  bulb  is  fully  eight  inches  in 
diameter,  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  in  height 
and  weighs  from  six  to  eight  pounds.  It  is 
graceful  in  shape,  having  the  form  of  a  beauti- 
ful vase.  In  color  it  is  like  brownish  copper 
with  inner  folds  of  silver. 

But  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the 
bulbs  is  their  wonderful  power  of  multiplica- 
tion. In  place  of  four  or  five  bulbs,  as  in  the 
old  plant,  the  new  amaryllis  produces  all  the 
way  from  forty  to  fifty.  When  they  were  first 
introduced  the  bulbs  sold  at  six  dollars  each, 
but  by  this  rapid  multiplication  they  will  soon 
be  produced  so  that  they  may  be  sold  for  a 
few  cents  each — then  the  poorest  man  may 
glorify  his  garden  by  these  magnificent  blos- 
soms, and  no  one  will  be  happier  thereby  than 
the  generous-hearted  man  who  has  made  them 
possible. 

When  Dr.  Hugo  de  Vries,  the  great  Dutch 
botanist,  visited  Mr.  Burbank  in  the  summer 

72 


THE    AMARYLLIS   AND   THE   POPPY 

of  1904,  called  to  America  mainly  by  his  in- 
tense desire  to  see  Mr.  Burbank  and  to  learn 
in  person  something  of  his  work,  he  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  amaryllis  experiments. 
He  wrote  an  exhaustive  article  for  a  Dutch 
magazine  comprising  many  thousands  of  words 
descriptive  of  his  visit  to  Mr.  Burbank, — fur- 
ther mention  of  which  is  elsewhere  made, — 
and  the  following  appears  in  regard  to  the 
amaryllis : 

"Another  example  (of  hybrids)  is  the  ama- 
ryllis, which  with  us  is  a  hothouse  plant,  but 
which,  in  California's  beautiful  climate,  may 
be  raised  in  the  open.  Thus  it  is  made  possible 
to  bring  to  flowering  tens  of  thousands  of 
seedlings,  while  in  Europe  we  can  select  only 
from  a  few  hundreds.  In  such  a  ratio  as  this, 
the  number  of  years  necessary  to  bring  about 
as  great  improvements  is  much  less.  It  re- 
quired more  than  half  a  century  to  get  the 
amaryllis  with  their  large  flowers  neatly  closed 
in  with  their  numberless  shades  and  stripes 
which  we  admire  so  much.  Burbank,  of 
course,  is  able  to  hasten  the  process. 

"Years  ago,  when  the  improvement  of  fruit 
trees  almost  exclusively  drew  his  attention,  he 

73 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

raised  and  crossed  the  amaryllis,  but  only  for 
curiosity's  sake  and  on  a  small  scale.  But  soon 
the  results  promised  that  more  labor  and  ex- 
pense bestowed  upon  them  would  in  the  end 
be  well  rewarded.  Then  he  commenced  the 
development  more  systematically  and  turned 
his  attention  to  the  propagation  of  very  de- 
cided properties, —  larger  flowers,  but,  espe- 
cially, more  flowers  on  the  same  stem,  and  next 
to  that,  all  those  characteristics  which  would 
give  more  rapid  development  and  a  larger  re- 
productive power.  Some  bulbs  which,  when 
starting  the  experiment,  produced  only  five  or 
six  bulbs,  were  forced  by  crossing  with  more 
fertile  species  and  a  careful  selection  to  double 
the  number  of  bulbs,  while  at  the  same  time, 
the  bulbs  were  increased  in  size  and  threw  out 
stronger  stems  and  fuller  flowers. 

"But  what  was  the  most  remarkable  was 
the  shortening  of  the  duration  of  life,  from 
seed  to  seed,  as  it  is  called.  I  mean  the  num- 
ber of  years  which  a  seedling  requires  before 
it  blossoms  and  produces  seed.  It  is  clear  how 
much  this  includes.  If  after  every  crossing 
there  elapse  four  or  five  years  before  the  result 
may  be  judged  by  the  one  flower,  all  that  time 

74 


THE    AMARYLLIS   AND   THE   POPPY 

must  be  given  to  its  care  and  cultivation,  but 
by  the  use  of  the  first  flowering  seedlings  in 
crossing,  the  duration  of  life  from  seed  to  seed 
is  cut  in  two,  so  that  after  two  or  three  years 
new  crossings  will  be  ready  for  him  to  pass 
judgment  upon  them.  Almost  all  of  the  long 
California  summer  we  may  now  have  the 
amaryllis  in  flower.  The  flowers  reach  a  diam- 
eter of  twenty  to  twenty -five  centimeters  in 
different  varieties,  with  flower  leaves  over- 
lapping one  another  with  their  broad  edges. 
The  colors  and  figures  compare  with  the  best 
European  kinds,  while  a  strong -built  plant,  an 
easy  handling  and  rapid  multiplication  make 
it  a  very  desirable  garden  plant.  It  is  the  aim 
to  make  it  one  of  the  most  common  plants 
which  will  find  its  place  in  parks  and  at  sum- 
mer resorts,  in  city  gardens  and  around  the 
farmer's  dwelling. 

"  Endeavors  to  cross  the  amaryllis  with  the 
related  Crinums  are  started,  and  from  what  I 
saw  of  them,  the  first  trials  were  crowned  with 
success.  The  Crinum  Americanum  is  a  wild 
plant  from  the  Florida  swamps  which  proved 
its  fitness  for  crossing.  At  the  same  time  a 
number  of  other  species  were  raised  for  the 

75 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

same  purpose  (of  crossing).  These  were  more 
tender  and  came  from  more  tropical  regions. 
Some,  Burbank  was  even  obliged  to  keep  in 
his  hothouse,  but,  when  crossed  with  the 
garden  amaryllis,  they  gave  hybrids  which  felt 
at  home  in  the  California  climate." 

De  Vries,  in  concluding  this  part  of  his 
comment,  again  referred  to  the  means  which 
Mr.  Burbank  has  made  use  of  to  shorten  the 
duration  of  life  from  seed  to  seed,  noting  that 
"many  a  tree  or  shrub  with  us  (in  Europe) 
only  commences  blossoming  when  it  is  ten  or 
fifteen  years  old,"  a  great  obstacle  especially 
when  repeated  crossings  are  necessary.  He 
then  calls  attention  to  the  means  which  Mr. 
Burbank  has  utilized,  threefold  in  character: 

"The  selection  of  California,  with  its  beauti- 
ful climate ;  the  selection  of  the  first  flowering 
seedlings,  and  his  method  of  grafting." 

He  then  describes  Mr.  Burbank's  method  of 
hurrying  hybrids  forward  with  great  rapidity 
by  grafting  upon  a  vast  scale,  as  elsewhere 
described. 

Down  through  long  rows  of  green  beds 
where  plants  of  many  kinds  are  under  test, 
showing  in  the  gradations  from  the  small, 

76 


THE   AMARYLLIS   AND   THE   POPPY 

weak  ones  up  to  the  strong  and  large  growths 
the  endless  marvel  of  selection,  the  eye  wan- 
ders, meeting  a  novelty  at  every  foot  until, 
at  last,  it  rests  upon  a  plot  of  ground  perhaps 
fifty  feet  square  wherein  are  growing  two 
thousand  of  the  most  marvelous  plants  that 
ever  were  seen  since  the  world  began.  This 
plot  or  bed  of  ground  contains  the  new  hybrid 
poppies  upon  which  Mr.  Burbank  has  been 
working  for  many  years.  The  chief  crosses 
have  been  between  the  oriental  poppy,  Pa- 
paver  orientale,  a  perennial,  and  the  opium 
poppy,  Papaver  somniferum,  a  short-lived 
annual.  Out  of  these  crosses  came  the  bed  of 
poppies,  no  two  of  the  whole  two  thousand 
alike.  In  the  foliage  especially,  and  also  in  the 
blossoms  to  a  lesser  extent,  nearly  every  order 
of  plants  known  appears.  The  leaves  are  a 
source  of  intense  interest  as  a  study  for  a 
botanist  or  plant -breeder,  presenting  remark- 
able combinations  of  old  forms  with  pro- 
duction of  entirely  new  ones. 

The  object  of  making  this  great  crossing 
was  far  more  than  reached — the  results  were 
richer  than  could  have  been  expected.  Sci- 
entifically interesting  in  a  marked  degree  as 

77 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

it  was, —  some  of  the  plants  bearing  great 
quantities  of  seeds  but  no  flowers,  some  bear- 
ing beautiful  flowers  in  great  profusion  but 
not  a  single  seed,  some  bearing  seeds  and 
flowers  arranged  in  the  most  fantastic  shapes 
with  flowers  surrounding  the  seed-capsules  and 
vice  versa,  and  some  curious  ones  bearing 
neither  seeds  nor  flowers, —  yet  the  experi- 
ment proved  still  more  interesting  to  the 
layman  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  adorn- 
ment of  the  world.  For  among  all  the  won- 
derful improvements  in  floral  life  which  Mr. 
Burbank  has  effected,  it  is  doubtful  if  any 
one  of  them  has  shown  what  might  be  termed 
such  spectacular  beauty.  His  creations  are 
each  so  individually  characteristic  and  beauti- 
ful that  they  are  not  easily  to  be  compared, 
but  the  poppy  results  certainly  may  be  desig- 
nated as  among  the  most  magnificent. 

But  look  a  little  later  upon  this  bed  of 
poppies,  and  even  the  strangeness  of  the  new 
life  in  seed -capsule  and  leaf  is  overshadowed 
in  interest  by  the  splendid  blossoms  them- 
selves. They  are  now  a  mass  of  crimson  and 
black  and  white,  with  many  intermediate 
blendings.  So  huge  the  blossoms,  so  wide 

78 


Wild  Arizona  potatoes  used  in  breeding  to  give  strength  and 
hardiness  to  the  common  potato 


THE   AMARYLLIS   AND   THE    POPPY 

the  mass  of  color,  it  is  as  though  some  great 
painter  of  the  world  itself  had  stopped  on  his 
way  over  this  fair  valley,  forgetful  of  the  rest 
of  the  earth,  and  here  had  fairly  exhausted 
his  brush.  The  blossoms  are  from  eight  to 
ten  inches  in  diameter.  Place  seven  of  them 
side  by  side  in  a  vertical  row,  they  are  as  tall 
as  a  tall  man, — eight  of  them  measure  the 
height  of  a  giant.  A  man  could  hide  behind 
a  dozen.  Individually,  the  flowers  have  all 
the  beauty  of  their  ancestors,  only  enhanced. 
Effective  in  interior  house  adornment,  taken 
in  the  mass  out-of-doors,  they  present  magnifi- 
cent decorative  possibilities.  All  this  is  made 
still  more  significant  because  of  the  fact  that 
most  of  the  new  species  are  perpetual  bloom- 
ers, lasting  throughout  the  entire  season 
instead  of  two  or  three  weeks  at  the  outside, 
as  is  the  case  of  other  poppies.  They  are 
perennials,  also. 

With  this  new  poppy  a  commanding  figure 
enters  upon  floral  life. 

Something  of  the  remarkable  character  of 
the  work  which  Mr.  Burbank  does  is  seen  in 
his  ability  to  take  a  single  one  of  these  new 
poppy  seed -capsules,  divide  it  into  four  sec- 

79 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

tions  and,  by  pollinating  each  section,  produce 
from  one  section  an  annual  plant,  from  an- 
other a  perennial,  from  the  third  quarter 
crimson  poppies,  from  the  fourth,  white  ones. 
In  another  experiment  Mr.  Burbank  has 
produced  a  blue  poppy,  a  blossom  unknown 
to  the  world  before. 

Strangely  interesting,  also,  is  a  new  poppy 
now  under  process  of  development,  which 
promises  to  become  a  notable  addition  to  this 
varied  family.  It  is  the  result  of  the  union 
of  the  Papaver  pilosum,  and  the  Papaver 
somniferum  of  the  variety  known  as  the 
"Bride"  poppy.  The  first  named  is  a  delicate 
flower,  the  general  color  being  a  dull  orange, 
with  white  center.  The  second  is  pure  white, 
the  seed -capsule  in  the  center  a  shade  of 
green.  The  first  one  has  smooth-edged  petals, 
the  white  one  heavily  laciniated  ones.  The 
child  of  the  two  is  a  fire -red  or  scarlet  with 
purple  at  the  base  of  the  petals,  a  most  strik- 
ing flower.  It  has  rejected  the  smooth  edges 
of  one  parent  and  adopted  the  irregular  lacin- 
iations,  or  fringe,  of  the  white  parent.  The 
divisions  of  the  fringe  of  the  new  poppy  are 
wider  than  those  of  the  parent,  though  the 

80 


THE   AMARYLLIS   AND   THE    POPPY 

incisions  are  not  so  deep.  Its  foliage  is  wholly 
different  from  that  of  either  parent.  The 
Pilosum  is  of  solid  color  throughout  its  petals, 
as  is  the  other  parent,  the  offspring  presenting 
a  combination  of  purple  and  scarlet  as  noted. 
As  one  studies  more  into  this  line  of  his 
experimentation,  the  wonder  grows  steadily,— 
the  possibilities  of  what  he  may  yet  accom- 
plish in  this  one  branch  seem  limitless;  for, 
aside  from  the  production  of  the  strange  forms 
which  appear  in  the  foliage  of  the  new  pop- 
pies, and  the  development  of  the  great  poppy 
itself  which  stands  apart  among  flowers,  he 
has  done  what  might  well  be  called  the 
impossible:  he  has  changed  the  native  Cali- 
fornia poppy  from  gold  to  crimson.  Many 
acts  has  this  man  done  which  savor  of  the 
miraculous,  none  more  marvelous  than  this. 
Once,  when  he  was  looking  over  a  field  of 
these  gorgeous  flowers  that  cover  the  Cali- 
fornia hills  and  roadsides  in  the  early  summer 
as  with  a  splendid  mantle  of  gold,  he  discov- 
ered one  blossom  which  bore  a  faint  trace  of 
crimson,  a  slender  line  along  down  its  yellow 
satin  chalice.  It  was  a  strange  stain  of  Nature. 
She  had  done  her  work  well  to  place  this  odd 

81 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT  LIFE 

note  of  color  where  it  would  fall  under  the 
eye  of  the  man  who  has  scrutinized  her  as 
others  have  never  done.  Instantly  he  isolated 
the  plant,  transplanted  it,  watched  it  with 
jealous  care.  Its  seeds  were  saved  and  planted. 
Some  of  the  flowers  which  came  upon  the 
plants  from  these  seeds  showed  a  similar  line 
of  red  slightly  widened.  Again  the  crop  of 
seeds  from  these  new  plants,  now  much  more 
numerous,  was  planted,  and  a  far  larger  har- 
vest of  blossoms  was  produced.  Some  of  them 
were  true  to  their  ancestral  forms  of  life  and 
nodded  their  pure  yellow  heads  in  saucy 
defiance.  They  paid  sadly  for  their  temerity, 
for  all  of  them  were  rejected.  Others  had 
still  more  pronounced  hints  of  the  crimson, 
and  these  were  selected  for  further  plant- 
ing. So  on  and  on  the  test  went  for  years, 
each  successive  generation  showing  stronger 
tendencies  toward  the  end  desired,  as  the 
petals  grew  more  and  more  crimson.  At  last 
the  end  was  reached,  the  yellow  poppy  had 
become  a  deep  lustrous  red;  it  was  hard  by 
the  land  of  miracles. 

From    certain    quarters,  —  so    curious    the 
inconsistency  of  man, — came  up  more  or  less 

82 


THE   AMARYLLIS   AND   THE   POPPY 

violent  protests  against  this  act, — the  golden 
poppy,  was  it  not  the  adopted  flower  of  the 
state  of  gold?  And  here  was  this  worker  of 
miracles  changing  it  to  crimson  and  robbing 
the  state  of  its  most  distinctive  and  character- 
istic adornment!  But  Mr.  Burbank  met  the 
protest  with  a  gentle  smile,  and  the  poppies 
go  on  their  gorgeous  way  embossing  the  Cali- 
fornia hillsides,  gold  upon  green  in  high  relief, 
like  the  ornaments  of  some  mighty  shield, 
while  the  crimson  poppy  which  has  been  so 
gently  stolen  from  their  midst  is  returned  to 
the  world  again  for  the  adornment  of  the 
gardens  of  many  lands. 

Many  other  striking  varieties  are  developing 
in  the  midst  of  all  the  crossings  thus  secured, 
exhibiting  all  manner  of  combinations  of  crim- 
son and  gold. 

But  Mr.  Burbank  does  not  attempt  the 
enlargement  of  a  flower  just  for  the  sake  of 
making  it  bigger  than  some  other  flower,  or 
even  that  it  may  be  called  bigger  than  any  of 
its  ancestors.  Bigness,  as  such,  has  no  cham- 
pion in  him.  He  makes  a  flower  larger  than 
its  ancestors  when  that  flower  has  certain 
characteristics  which  make  increased  size 

83 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

desirable.  A  lesser  man  might,  with  the  same 
power  in  his  hands,  breed  flowers  merely  to  be 
huge  without  regard  to  the  flower's  plan  in 
nature  or  the  fitness  of  things.  Not  so  with 
Mr.  Burbank.  He  has  as  great  a  delight  in 
intensifying  the  color  or  deepening  the  fra- 
grance of  a  violet  as  he  has  in  making  some 
flower  with  distinct  decorative  possibilities 
more  noble  of  bloom.  He  might,  through  years 
of  selection,  produce,  no  doubt,  a  violet  much 
larger  in  size  then  any  now  known,  but  he 
would  as  soon  think  of  preserving  some  ugly 
monstrosity  of  plant  life  as  of  thus  disturbing 
the  life  habit  of  one  of  the  most  exquisite  of 
flowers.  Deeper  tones  to  the  violet,  yes;  greater 
luxuriance  of  growth,  wider  zones  of  cultiva- 
tion, greater  hardiness,  intenser  even  if  subtler 
perfume,  yes;  but  abnormality,  never. 

The  whole  scheme  of  his  treatment  of 
floral  life  embraces  harmony  and  symmetry. 
He  would  round  it  out  when  it  is  angular, 
make  it  more  graceful  when  it  is  awkward, 
deepen  and  vary  its  fragrancies  without 
making  them  oppressive.  No  man  who  has 
ever  lived  has  laid  out  such  a  scheme  for  the 
adornment  of  the  world,  indeed  it  may  fairly 

84 


Potatoes  growing  upon  a  tomato  vine  after  grafting  upon 
the  potato  root 


THE   AMARYLLIS   AND   THE   POPPY 

be  stated  that  not  all  the  plant-breeders  who 
have  preceded  him  have  ever  done  so  much  to 
ennoble  floral  life.  And  the  future  holds  pos- 
sibilities to  be  still  more  clearly  indicated 
when  his  new  creations,  many  of  which  are  but 
just  coming  into  general  use,  shall  be  uni- 
versal. Years  have  been  necessary  in  his  tests 
to  bring  the  flowers  up  to  their  high  estate, 
and  years  more  will  elapse  before  all  the  tests 
under  way  will  be  completed,  but  enough  has 
already  been  done  to  alter  the  whole  floral  life 
of  the  world.  Those  who  were  fortunate 
enough  to  see  the  magnificent  display  of 
cannas  at  the  Pan-American  Exposition  in  the 
city  of  Buffalo, —  the  "Tarrytown"  canna,  one 
of  Mr.  Burbank's  creations, — could  form 
some  idea  of  the  grander  possibilities  of  his 
new  flowers;  and  at  the  exposition  in  St. 
Louis  the  first  prize  for  bedding  roses,  a  rose 
which  has  limitless  possibilities  for  exterior 
decoration,  was  a  rose  created  by  Mr.  Bur- 
bank.  But  the  more  magnificent  creations  are 
not  more  wonderful,  or  more  important,  than 
those  which  have  their  culmination  in  his 
glorification  of  the  tiniest  blossoms,  be  they 
those  shy  wild  ones  which  open  their  eyes  in 

85 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN  PLANT  LIFE 

the  depths  of  the  cool  dark  forest,  or  those 
more  daring  ones  that  witchingly  display  their 
dainty  brilliancy  in  the  gardens  of  the  town. 
It  is  his  close  and  intimate  touch  with 
nature,  united  with  his  keen  sense  of  the 
fitness  of  things  ever  manifest  in  all  he 
does,  that  enables  him  to  deal  with  these 
flowers  quite  as  a  painter  with  his  landscape. 
He  makes  them  not  only  in  a  certain  beau- 
tiful sense  interpret  his  own  thoughts,  giving 
to  the  world  in  the  completed  whole  that  which 
he  has  long  been  planning  in  his  own  brain, 
but  he  fits  them  unerringly  into  their  natural 
place.  It  is,  if  you  will,  the  blending  of  the 
artisan  and  the  artist. 


86 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  POTATO  AND  THE  POMATO 

TTklRECTLY  in  line  with  many  of  what 
-*-^  may  be  called  the  commercial  achieve- 
ments of  Mr.  Burbank, — though  these  are  no 
less  wonderful  than  those  which  have  had  a 
more  aesthetic  bearing, — is  his  work  in  the 
production  of  the  potato.  It  was  this  vegeta- 
ble, as  has  elsewhere  been  noted,  which 
originally  brought  Mr.  Burbank's  name  into 
prominence,  and  all  through  the  years  that 
have  intervened  since  its  creation  it  has  had 
a  large  influence  not  only  upon  the  wealth  of 
the  nations  but  upon  the  dietary  of  the  people 
of  many  countries.  Recent  reports  from  Ire- 
land show  that  the  Burbank  potato  bids  fair 
to  redeem  that  long -distressed  island  from 
famine,  because  of  its  ability  to  withstand  the 
diseases  which  have  destroyed  other  varieties. 
For  many  years  Mr.  Burbank  has  been  at 
work  upon  new  varieties  of  potatoes.  Even 
though  the  one  that  bears  his  name  has 

87 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

proven  so  successful,  he  has  not  hesitated  to 
set  about  producing  improved  ones,  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  potato  for  doing  better  and  still 
better  service  to  the  world  being  unusually 
pronounced.  With  this  end  in  view,  he  has 
gathered  varieties,  both  wild  and  tame,  from 
many  different  countries,  making  from  them 
a  bewildering  number  of  crosses  and  combina- 
tions. Some  of  them  are  curious  in  character, 
as,  for  example,  the  snake  potato,  a  crescent- 
shaped  type  from  South  America  about  three 
inches  long  and  a  little  over  half  an  inch  thick 
in  its  largest  part.  The  wild  potato  from  Ari- 
zona has  a  most  peculiar  form.  One  would 
never  believe  it  to  be  a  potato.  In  shape  and 
general  appearance  it  is  a  large-sized  raisin. 
Some  of  the  potatoes  of  this  variety  are  dark 
reddish  brown  in  color,  some  lighter,  but  all 
have  the  distinctive  shrunken  look  and  shape 
of  the  raisin. 

Such  wild  potatoes  as  this  form  valuable 
adjuncts  to  the  work.  Very  often  a  wild  strain 
of  blood  supplies  Mr.  Burbank  just  the  needed 
element  to  make  a  weak  race  powerful.  It 
was  Emerson,  whom  Mr.  Burbank  most  de- 
lights to  quote,  who  said  one  day  on  this  point: 

88 


THE    POTATO   AND   THE   POMATO 

"The  city  is  recruited  from  the  country.  In 
the  year  1805,  it  is  said,  every  legitimate  mon- 
arch in  Europe  was  imbecile.  The  city  would 
have  died  out,  rotted  and  exploded,  long  ago 
but  that  it  was  reinforced  from  the  fields.  It 
is  only  country  that  came  to  town  day  before 
yesterday,  that  is  city  and  court  today." 

Some  of  the  potatoes  which  are  hurried  for- 
ward in  the  greenhouse  are  very  interesting 
because  of  their  size.  Perhaps  a  hundred,  of 
them,  so  small  are  they,  may  be  held  in  a 
child's  hand,  and  all  of  them  perfect  potatoes 
and  all  differing  in  color,  size  and  shape.  One 
new  potato  which  has  proven  most  toothsome 
is  beautifully  colored  throughout  all  its  flesh. 
The  color  is  a  magenta  approaching  crimson, 
so  distributed  that,  when  the  potato  is  cut 
open,  no  matter  from  what  angle,  it  presents 
most  interesting  figures,  some  conventional, 
some  severely  geometric,  some  having  a  start- 
ling likeness  to  human  and  animal  faces. 

Mr.  Burbank  says  that  an  erroneous  opinion 
prevails  that  the  potato  has  a  tendency  to  die 
out,  or  run  out,  as  the  phrase  is,  in  various 
countries.  He  says  this  apparent  running  out 
of  a  given  variety  is  generally  due  to  the  intro- 

89 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT  LIFE 

duction  of  better  varieties  which  slowly  but 
surely  supplant  the  old  ones.  He  makes  note 
of  the  fact,  too,  that  the  seed -ball  of  the 
potato  is  less  and  less  often  found  now  upon 
the  common  varieties,  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
tuber  of  the  potato  itself  is  used  in  planting 
exclusively.  The  continued  disuse  of  any 
organ  in  a  plant,  as  in  an  animal,  tends  to  its 
weakening  and  final  extinction.  He  notes 
among  plants  which  have  gradually  passed 
through  the  same  experience  the  sugar-cane, 
banana,  horse-radish,  sweet  potato  and  others. 
Thousands  of  new  potatoes  are  being  bred 
by  Mr.  Burbank  in  the  midst  of  his  new  tests 
in  the  search  for  better  stock.  Very  much  of 
this  is  begun  in  the  hothouse,  in  order  to  save 
time.  Selection  here  goes  on  upon  an  elaborate 
scale,  but,  important  as  it  always  is  in  this 
production  of  plants  specifically  valuable  com- 
mercially as  well  as  those  for  adornment  alone, 
selection  is  not  less  important,  in  a  commer- 
cial production,  than  a  knowledge  of  the  needs 
of  the  various  parts  of  the  world  to  which  the 
new  production  is  to  go.  Here  lie  some  of  the 
most  important  problems  in  all  Mr.  Burbank's 
work,  the  solution  calling  for  the  widest  pos- 

90 


THE   POTATO   AND   THE   POMATO 

sible  knowledge.  He  studies  a  thousand  and 
one  phases  of  the  subject  whenever  he  projects 
a  new  creation.  He  must  know  the  conditions 
under  which  old  varieties  have  been  produced 
and  their  life  history;  he  must  know  the 
character  of  the  soil,  the  length  of  season,  the 
climatic  conditions,  the  markets,  and  their  de- 
mands. He  never  produces  a  new  fruit  or 
vegetable  without  taking  clearly  into  account 
all  these  practical  bearings.  This  adds  enor- 
mously to  the  sum  of  all  his  labor,  but  it  is 
precisely  this  which  has  made  his  creations  so 
successful  —  he  knows  not  only  how  to  create 
but  how  to  fit  and  adapt.  This  suggests  some- 
thing of  the  tremendous  demands  made  upon 
Mr.  Burbank  in  the  prosecution  of  a  work  of 
such  great  magnitude  and  of  so  diverse  a 
character. 

So  these  new  potatoes  are  being  bred  to  suit 
all  sorts  of  climate  and  soils. 

But  there  is  another  and  vitally  important 
phase  of  the  work,  the  changing  of  the  potato 
itself — making  it  over  into  a  far  richer  vege- 
table than  it  has  ever  been  before.  Just  as 
corn  may  be  bred,  and  is  being  bred,  to  pro- 
duce a  required  per  cent  of  a  given  element,  so 

91 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

a  potato  may  be  bred  to  increase  or  decrease 
its  chief  characters.  The  average  potato  is 
composed  of  about  seventy -five  per  cent 
water  and  twenty -five  per  cent  dry  matter. 
This  latter  is,  broadly  speaking,  composed  of 
starch,  protein  and  fat;  though  these  two 
latter  elements  are  present  in  but  small  quan- 
tities, the  main  body  of  the  dry  matter  being 
the  starch.  In  the  growing  potato  vine  there 
is  a  very  large  proportion  of  starch,  larger  than 
either  rice  or  corn,  approximately  eighty  per 
cent. 

Before  considering  the  immediate  plans  of 
Mr.  Burbank  in  the  improvement  of  the  po- 
tato as  a  table  food,  it  will  be  of  interest  to 
show  something  of  the  practical  bearing  of 
his  work  upon  the  manufacturing  possibilities 
of  the  potato  in  the  line  of  starch.  The 
seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  potato  which  con- 
sists of  water  may,  from  the  manufacturing 
point  of  view,  be  considered  as  largely  waste, 
or,  if  not  waste,  at  least  of  no  commercial 
value.  Very  much  of  this  waste  may  be  re- 
stored, negatively  speaking,  by  driving  out  the 
water  and  putting  starch  in  its  place.  Mr. 
Burbank's  investigations  have  shown  that  it  is 


THE  POTATO  AND  THE  POMATO 

as  easy  to  breed  potatoes  for  a  larger  amount 
of  starch  as  it  is  to  breed  for  any  other  charac- 
teristic—  flavor,  resistance  to  disease,  with- 
standing drought,  adaptability  to  a  given 
climate,  early  or  late  maturing,  and  so  on. 

If  in  his  experiments  he  develops  a  potato 
which  has  twenty-five  per  cent  more  starch 
than  the  normal  potato, —  though  even  a 
larger  amount  is  possible, —  the  result  is  of 
marked  importance  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  manufacturer.  The  value  of  the  average 
annual  production  of  potatoes  in  the  United 
States  is  now,  approximately,  one  hundred 
millions  of  dollars.  In  round  numbers  the 
United  States  produces  each  year  about  ten 
million  dollars'  worth  of  starch.  The  chief 
sources  of  supply  for  this  starch  are  Indian 
corn  and  potatoes.  Of  the  four  main  uses 
to  which  starch  is  put, —  for  the  laundry, 
for  the  manufacture  of  glucose,  for  edible 
purposes,  and  for  use  in  the  textile  arts, — corn, 
in  the  United  States,  supplies  the  main 
portion  of  the  first  two.  In  Europe  the  potato 
is  practically  the  main  source  of  starch  supply. 
Potato  starch  is  of  much  importance  to  the 
manufacturer  of  cottons,  woolens,  silks  and 

93 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

linens,  as  sizing  for  the  warp  before  it  is 
woven;  for  finishing  the  goods  after  they  have 
been  woven,  bleached  and  dyed,  and,  in  the 
form  of  dextriiie,  as  a  thickener  or  vehicle 
for  applying  the  colors  to  a  fabric.  The  dex- 
trine, or  British  gum,  is  used  a  great  deal  also 
in  the  manufacturing  of  mucilages. 

But  the  potatoes  in  use  for  starch  manufac- 
ture in  the  United  States  are  very  often  poor  in 
quality,  made  up  of  culls,  immature  tubers,  or 
those  injured  in  digging  and  sold  as  waste. 
The  starch  is  quite  likely  also  to  be  low  in 
grade  and  lacking  in  uniformity,  greatly  vary- 
ing from  day  to  day.  Still,  notwithstanding 
this,  for  use  in  textile  arts,  the  potato  starch 
commands  nearly^  double  the  price  of  corn 
starch. 

Attempts  have  -been  made  to  increase  the 
supply  of  starch  by  the  use  of  fertilizers,  but 
Mr.  Burbank's  plan  is  better  than  this,  for  it 
begins  with  the  source  of  the  supply  itself  and 
works  directly  upon  the  starch  in  the  plant,  as 
is  the  case  in  the  breeding  of  corn  for  a  larger 
starch -content.  The  potatoes  which  show  a 
somewhat  larger  amount  of  starch  are  selected 
for  further  testing,  and  here  again  the  supreme 

94 


THE   POTATO   AND   THE   POMATO 

importance  of  selection  is  shown,  each  suc- 
ceeding generation  having  an  increase  of  the 
desired  characteristic  over  the  former. 

Nearly  twelve  millions  of  dollars  are  in- 
vested in  the  United  States  alone  in  the 
manufacture  of  starch.  With  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  starch -content  added  to  a  given  thou- 
sand pounds  of  potatoes,  there  being  no 
attendant  increase  in  the  cost  of  manufacture, 
the  economic  importance  of  breeding  for 
starch  becomes  apparent.  In  Europe  the 
matter  has  received  much  attention,  and  efforts 
have  been  made  to  increase  the  amount  of 
starch.  Along  with  the  increase  in  starch 
supply  which  Mr.  Burbank  makes  available 
for  the  whole  world  simply  by  an  intelligent 
following  of  the  lines  he  has  laid  down,  comes 
increase  in  productivity,  for  he  is  able  to 
unite  these  two  characteristics  in  the  same 
plant. 

In  the  production  of  alcohol  for  manufactur- 
ing purposes  the  potato  is  coming  more  and 
more  into  favor.  The  starch  is  converted  into 
maltose  by  the  diastase  of  malt,  the  maltose 
being  easily  acted  upon  by  ferment  for  the 
actual  production  of  the  alcohol.  An  increase 

95 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

in  the  starch -content  of  the  potato  for  this 
manufacture  is  particularly  desirable. 

But  important  as  this  breeding  of  potatoes 
is  from  a  manufacturing  point  of  view,  it  is 
still  more  important  as  a  means  of  food  sup- 
ply. The  great  value  of  the  potato  as  a  food 
lies  in  its  being  a  concentrated  food,  supplying 
both  heat  and  energy,  though  needing  the 
foods  rich  in  protein  to  make  up  a  model  bal- 
anced ration.  Mr.  Burbank  is  now  making  over 
the  potato.  He  long  ago  saw  its  possibilities, 
and  only  the  tremendous  demands  of  other  ex- 
periments upon  him  have  prevented  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work.  He  will  leave  the  potato, 
when  he  is  done  with  it,  a  far  more  impor- 
tant feature  of  the  world's  supply  of  food  than 
it  has  ever  been  before.  Already  enough  has 
been  accomplished  in  the  preliminary  test,  to 
foreshadow  the  end.  He  has  had  four  main 
objects  in  view  in  the  work:  A  potato  with 
a  better  flavor,  one  with  a  relatively  larger 
amount  of  sugar,  one  that  will  be  of  a  larger 
size  and  all  of  the  same  uniform  shape  and 
size,  and  one  that  will  better  resist  disease 
and  be  a  larger  yielder  than  any  potato  now 
known. 

96 


THE   POTATO   AND   THE   POMATO 

While  he  is  working  with  all  these  factors 
in  view,  and  gradually  bringing  the  potatoes 
under  test  up  to  the  standard  he  has  set  for 
each,  he  is  perhaps  more  deeply  interested  in 
the  production  of  a  better  flavored  potato  than 
in  almost  any  of  the  other  features,  important 
though  they  are.  He  holds  that  it  is  highly 
important  in  the  production  of  a  new  fruit  or 
vegetable  to  make  it  preeminently  palatable, 
for,  in  the  last  analysis,  it  is  palatability  that 
decides  the  permanence  of  any  new  food.  If 
palatability  be  eliminated  as  a  factor,  then 
mankind  is  prone  to  consider  the  food, — no 
matter  what  its  form  or  character, — a  medi- 
cine, to  be  taken  because  it  produces  certain 
necessary  results.  He  has  long  been  working, 
and  with  satisfactory  results,  to  breed  more 
sugar  into  the  potato  as  one  element  of  pala- 
tability so  that  when  cooked  it  will  present  a 
far  more  satisfactory  flavor.  Several  of  the 
new  varieties  now  under  test  have  already 
shown  a  delightful  advance  in  this  respect  over 
older  varieties.  The  question  of  size  is  also 
important,  and  Mr.  Burbank  is  giving  to  the 
potatoes  uniformity  so  that  they  will  be  more 
satisfactory  for  shipping.  The  old-fashioned 

97 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LITE 

potatoes  varied  much  in  a  given  hill,  rendering 
them  unsatisfactory  for  marketing  without 
selection.  Mr.  Burbank  will  obviate  this  by 
making  them  all  practically  of  the  same  size. 
Uniformity  will  also  be  more  satisfactory  for 
cooking  purposes. 

While  the  potato  and  the  tomato  are  very 
closely  allied  in  family  ties,  being,  indeed,  not 
far  separated  blood  relation,  they  are  as  far 
apart  as  the  poles  when  it  comes  to  any  satis- 
factory amalgamation.  Mr.  Burbank  has  found 
many  similarly  strange  instances  where  two 
plants  which,  by  all  the  probabilities,  should 
be  the  very  ones  to  be  most  hospitable  to  each 
other,  utterly  refuse  to  join. 

But  some  very  remarkable  results  developed 
in  his  attempts  to  cross  the  two.  For  ex- 
ample, he  has  produced  tomatoes  from  the 
seeds  of  plants  pollinated  from  potato  pollen 
only.  He  has  produced  what  he  has  aptly 
called  "aerial  potatoes,"  most  peculiar  in  form, 
growing  on  a  Burbank  potato  vine  grafted  on 
a  Ponderosa  tomato  plant.  These  open-air 
potatoes  are  of  many  different  shapes  and  sizes, 
as  well  as  colors.  Some  of  them  assume  gro- 
tesque forms  and  appear  quite  like  little  pigs. 

98 


A  rare  two-petaled  hybrid  seedling  lily 


THE   POTATO   AND   THE    POMATO 

Reversing  this  act,  he  grafted  the  same  kind  of 
tomato  plant  upon  the  same  kind  of  potato 
plant  and  produced,  underground,  a  strange- 
looking  potato  with  marked  tomato  character- 
istics. Two  distinct  species  of  tomatoes  were 
crossed,  producing  an  exceedingly  interesting 
ornamental  plant  about  twelve  inches  high  by 
fifteen  inches  across.  It  has  remarkably  at- 
tractive and  unusual  leaves  and  compact  clus- 
ters of  uniform  globular  fruit,  the  whole 
presenting  a  unique  appearance.  In  this 
connection  Mr.  Burbank  suggests  the  possi- 
bilities for  the  development  of  the  tomato  on 
the  part  of  amateur  and  commercial  plant 
breeders — opportunities  for  the  developing  of 
tomatoes  with  greater  nutrition,  more  pal- 
atable, and  with  better  keeping  and  canning 
qualities  being  pronounced.  He  looks  upon 
the  tomato  as  a  desirable  vegetable  as  it 
stands,  but  as  one  which  by  no  manner  of 
means  has  been  brought  up  to  its  proper 
plane. 

But  important  as  is  the  work  of  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  in  potato  culture,  both  in  the  production 
of  the  world  -  famous  potato  which  bears  his 
name  and  in  the  large  tests  now  under  way  in 

99 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

the  transformation  of  this  vegetable,  it  appears 
probable  that  it  will  be  rivaled,  even  if  it  is 
not  surpassed,  by  the  new  fruit  which  grows 
upon  the  potato  which  he  has  named  the  "po- 
mato."  Among  all  his  many  interesting  and 
novel  creations  this  certainly  takes  high  rank, 
not  only  for  its  novelty  but  for  its  practical 
value.  Looking  to  the  common  origin  of  the 
tomato  and  the  potato,  and  considering  the 
general  appearance  of  the  new  fruit,  he  has 
happily  combined  the  two  names  in  designat- 
ing this  new  creation. 

The  pomato  is  a  fruit,  not  a  vegetable, 
though  growing  upon  a  vegetable.  It  is  what 
might  be  termed  the  evolution  of  a  potato 
seed-ball.  It  first  appears  as  a  tiny  green  ball 
upon  the  potato  top,  and  develops  as  the  sea- 
son progresses  into  a  fruit  the  size  and  general 
shape  of  a  small  tomato.  The  flesh  is  white, 
bearing,  usually,  a  few  small  seeds.  It  is  de- 
lightful to  the  taste,  having  the  suggestion  of 
quite  a  number  of  different  fruits  and  yet  not 
easily  identified  as  any  particular  one.  It  may 
be  eaten  either  raw  or  cooked.  It  is  fine  eaten 
raw  out  of  hand,  delicious  when  cooked,  and 
excellent  as  a  preserve. 

100 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  LILIES 

,  since  the  world  began,  Nature 
never  presented  a  stranger  spectacle  than 
that  seen  several  years  ago  on  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  proving  grounds  at  Sebastopol,  when  a 
hundred  thousand  seedling  hybrid  lilies  were 
in  blossom  at  the  same  time.  And  never 
before  did  so  vast  a  volume  of  perfume,— 
there  is  no  other  figure  to  express  it, — rise 
toward  the  summer  sky.  So  intense  was  the 
fragrance  that  ranchmen  a  mile  away  could 
distinctly  detect  it,  while  all  the  country  round 
about  and  the  little  town  that  lies  at  the 
entrance  to  this  wondrous  place  was  saturated 
with  the  odor.  It  was  a  strange  composite 
fragrance,  too,  a  thousand  scents  blended  into 
one  ;  for  with  the  tens  upon  tens  of  thousands 
of  different  lilies  came  not  only  a  well-nigh 
infinite  variety  of  flower,  but  an  indescribably 
rare  and  complex  odor  unlike  anything  the 
world  had  known  before. 

101 


X5REATIO^S    JN   PLANT   LIFE 


A  visitor  to  the  lily  -testing  grounds  at 
Sebastopol,  Mr.  Charles  Howard  Shinn,  in  a 
newspaper  article  printed  at  the  time,  spoke 
thus  of  the  general  effect: 

"This  great  mass  of  a  hundred  thousand 
lilies  in  full  bloom,  on  a  California  hillside,  in 
mid-June,  surrounded  by  orchards,  wheat  fields 
and  fringes  of  forest,  is  peculiarly  enchanting. 
As  one  approaches,  the  golden,  orange  and 
red  tints  which  predominate,  mingled  with 
various  shades  of  green,  produce  the  effect  of 
some  huge  product  of  Oriental  looms.  Little 
by  little,  as  one  draws  closer,  the  colors  sepa- 
rate, and  widely  diverse  types  of  flowers  are 
seen  to  be  growing  side  by  side.  One  finds 
lily  stems  varying  in  height  from  six  inches  to 
nine  feet,  all  bearing  open  flowers.  Some 
plants  have  many  stems,  others  but  one,  and 
a  few  present  stems  with  distinct  branches 
like  the  branches  of  a  tree.  Flowers,  leaves, 
stems  and  roots  show  every  conceivable  varia- 
tion. The  biologist  would  find  material  for  a 
volume  in  this  lily  field. 

"Some  lilies  have  but  one  petal,  rolled  like 
a  cigar  and  half-open  like  the  broader  end  of 
a  cypripedium.  Others  have  two  petals  spread- 

102 


THE   LILIES 

ing  apart  like  wings.  Others,  again,  have  three 
or  four  or  five  petals.  The  great  bulk,  how- 
ever, have  the  normal  six.  The  variation  in 
color  is  extreme,  ranging  from  white  to  dark 
purple,  through  surprising  changes  of  com- 
binations. The  methods  of  growth  are  equally 
curious.  Many  stems  bear  all  the  flowers  at 
the  top,  almost  level,  a  new  system  for  lilies, 
and  especially  useful  in  garden  grouping.  One 
such  plant  two  and  a  half  feet  high  carries 
fifty-six  flowers.  A  tall  spike  of  golden  brown 
lilies,  of  L.  Humboldtii  type,  carries  ninety-one 
flowers  and  is  four  feet  high. 

"In  form,  size,  color,  fragrance,  this  field  of 
hybridized  lily  flowers  is  a  revelation.  There 
is  certainly  nothing  like  it  elsewhere  in 
America,  and  I  do  not  know  of  any  place  in 
Europe  where  such  a  collection  can  be  found. 
We  came  out  of  the  field  yellow  and  brown 
from  head  to  foot  with  lily  pollen." 

Comparatively  little  had  been  done  by  any 
one  to  treat  lily  culture  in  a  broad  manner, 
until  Mr.  Burbank  took  it  up; — certainly  no 
one  had  ever  attempted  it  upon  such  a  gigan- 
tic scale  as  this.  The  lily  was  recognized  as 
an  exceedingly  difficult  plant  upon  which  to 

103 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

work,  and,  while  possibilities  were  admitted, 
it  was  shunned  because  of  the  obstacles  in 
the  way.  Many  had  pronounced  it  incapable 
of  any  satisfactory  hybridization.  To  one  of 
Mr.  Burbank's  temperament  the  very  fact 
that  possibilities  were  promised  in  the  face 
of  difficulties  made  the  outlook  all  the  more 
attractive;  for  he  had  found  that  in  nature, 
as  well  as  in  all  departments  of  endeavor,  the 
things  which  are  most  easy  of  accomplishment 
quite  often  are  the  least  desirable;  those 
which  are  the  most  difficult,  the  ones  which 
yield  the  most  important  results. 

But  here,  as  in  so  many  departments,  he 
had  a  distinct  and  commanding  advantage 
over  all  others  in  the  magnitude  of  the  work. 
He  had  also  the  advantage  of  a  superb  climate 
and  soil  where  lilies  from  different  zones  could 
meet  upon  a  common  congenial  plane  and 
where  each  one  would  be  at  its  best.  The 
lilies  showed  an  unusual  tendency  to  depart 
from  their  former  life  habits.  Sports  or 
abnormalities  were  very  common.  Some  of 
them  were  valueless,  save  as  curious  testi- 
monials to  the  eccentricities  of  Nature  when 
her  life  forces  are  disturbed  and  have  not  yet 

104 


THE   LILIES 

had  time  to  adjust  themselves;  some  had 
distinct  value  in  the  promise  they  made  of 
greater  things.  Such  as  had  a  prophecy  of 
some  new  and  desirable  trait, — added  vigor, 
greater  hardiness,  adaptability,  unusual  form, 
or  great  beauty, — were  preserved,  and  work 
upon  them  has  steadily  progressed. 

Nearly  fifty  different  kinds  of  lilies  were 
chosen  from  widely  separated  parts  of  the 
world.  These  were  planted,  and  from  the 
blossoms  elaborate  crossings  by  pollination 
were  made  through  a  series  of  years.  The 
work  was  mainly  done  by  means  of  the  finger- 
tips, with  a  watch-crystal  or  small  saucer  to 
hold  the  pollen.  It  was  what  might  be  called 
pollination  by  wholesale;  it  had  never  been 
equaled  in  extent  before.  For  several  years 
this  work  proceeded,  until  Mr.  Burbank 
was  planting  several  pounds  of  seed  per 
year.  At  last  there  were  enough  plants  to 
begin  the  great  test,  and  a  hundred  thousand 
of  them  were  transplanted  to  the  proving 
grounds  at  Sebastopol.  Here  they  occupied 
two  acres  of  ground. 

In  the  carrying  forward  of  the  work  more 
than  a  million  lily  bulbs  had  been  produced 

105 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

up  to  this  time,  and  a  vast  number  have  since 
been  grown. 

In  strangeness  of  form  these  lilies  rivaled 
anything  Mr.  Burbank  has  ever  produced. 
For  example,  one  seedling  from  a  native  wild 
California  lily  which  grows  only  ten  inches 
high  produced  all  the  way  from  twenty  to 
forty  blossoms  on  each  of  the  short  stalks  put 
forth,  whereas  the  usual  number  was  from 
three  to  eight.  One  small  dwarf  lily,  the 
result  of  a  cross,  bore  twenty -eight  flowers; 
while  another,  a  branching  lily  with  eight 
stems  coming  from  one  bulb,  bore  over  two 
hundred  buds  and  flowers.  One  plant  of  this 
cross  showed  thirty-seven  stems. 

Speaking  of  the  curiously  interesting  vari- 
ations in  flower,  plant  and  bulb,  Mr.  Burbank 
says: 

"One  blossom  is  white;  another  pale  straw 
or  creamy  white  with  thick  recurving,  chan- 
neled petals,  studded  with  numerous  papillae 
with  light  yellow  anthers;  another  is  per- 
fectly green  throughout  in  appearance,  very 
much  resembling  a  trillium  in  form  and 
general  character;  some  are  tigridia  -  like ; 
others  open  their  petals  in  such  curious 

106 


THE    LILIES 

manner  that  the  flowers  resemble  sprekelias 
in  form;  some  are  crimson  or  yellow  or 
darkest  orange-  yellow,  with  leopard  spots  or 
plain.  Many  grow  six  to  eight  feet  high, 
others  only  six  to  eight  inches.  About  one- 
fifth  are  fragrant,  some  slightly,  others  power- 
fully so.  Some  bear  only  two  or  three  flowers 
to  each  stalk,  while  others  have  twenty  to 
fifty  or  more.  The  leaves  are  broad  or  narrow, 
long  or  short,  light  green  or  dark  green,  and 
some  beautifully  striped  with  white.  Some 
varieties  have  branching  stems. 

"  The  bulbs  are  almost  as  much  of  a  study 
as  the  flowers.  Some  have  flat,  thin,  open 
scales  like  a  rose  or  clematis  flower ;  others 
have  close,  thick,  incurved  scales,  some  many- 
jointed,  others  entire  and  some  crenated;  a  few 
with  pink  or  red  bulbs, — but  oftener  yellow, 
orange  or  white — some  of  them  being  nearly 
globular,  others  conical  or  flat.  Some  throw 
out  numerous  long  moniliform,  underground 
runners.  Some  varieties  have  a  tendency  to 
start  early,  others  late." 

The  calla  was  bred  for  larger  size,  combined 
with  strength  of  stalk  and  great  beauty,  a 
blossom  being  produced  at  last  nearly  a  foot 

107 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN    PLANT   LIFE 

across.  When  carried  in  the  other  direction,  a 
perfect  calla  was  made  not  more  than  an  inch 
and  a  half  in  diameter  and  perfect  in  every 
detail. 

Another  calla  was  bred  having  handsome 
golden  variegated  leaves,  in  interesting  contrast 
with  the  leaves  which  formerly  had  borne 
white  spots.  Before  this  great  work,  the 
common  garden  calla  had  had  no  odor,  or,  at 
best,  only  a  faint  and  rather  disagreeable  one. 
As  Mr.  Burbank  was  examining  a  series  of  calla 
seedlings,  he  detected  one  which  bore  a  fra- 
grance with  the  hint  of  violets  and  the  sugges- 
tion, too,  of  the  water-lily.  This  calla  was 
isolated  and  bred  for  its  perfume.  Rigid 
selection  and  exclusion  followed,  and  little  by 
little  the  perfume  was  increased  and  intensi- 
fied until  at  last  it  was  fixed,  a  rare  and 
delightful  attribute.  The  new  flower  also  grew 
in  marked  profusion,  and  blossomed  earlier 
than  the  calla  from  which  it  has  been  bred. 

Upon  the  general  subject  of  new  lilies,  Mr. 
Burbank  says: 

"Twenty-six  years  ago  I  began  to  cross  our 
native  Pacific  Coast  lilies,  adding  from  time 
to  time  all  the  exotic  species  and  varieties 

108 


THE   LILIES 

which  seemed  to  promise  favorable  results, 
until  my  collection  was  the  most  extensive  in 
the  world.  These  have  been  combined  and 
selected,  and  recombined  and  reselected,  until 
the  most  important  results  ever  achieved 
among  lilies  are  now  an  embodied  fact.  Of 
some  of  the  older  hybrids  and  seedlings  I  have 
as  many  as  a  thousand  bulbs  of  each  variety 
and  have  also  half  a  million  kinds  yet  to  un- 
fold their  petals  for  the  first  time,  and  am 
still  planting  from  one  to  three  pounds  of 
hybridized  lily  seed  every  season.  The  best 
of  the  world's  lily  experts  who  visited  my 
grounds  decided  that  there  were  at  least  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  lilies  which  were 
distinct  hybrids  among  the  millions  of  lilies 
then  blooming  on  my  grounds. 

"Can  my  thoughts  be  imagined,  after  so 
many  years  of  patient  care  and  labor,  as,  walk- 
ing among  them  on  a  dewy  morning,  I  look 
upon  these  new  forms  of  beauty,  on  which 
other  eyes  have  never  gazed?  Here  a  plant 
six  feet  high  with  bright  yellow  flowers,  beside 
it  one  only  six  inches  high  with  darkest  red 
flowers,  and,  further  on,  one  of  pale  straw,  or 
snowy  white,  or  with  curious  dots  and  shad- 

109 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

ings;  some  deliciously  fragrant,  others  faintly 
so;  some  with  upright,  others  with  nodding 
flowers;  some  with  dark  green,  woolly  leaves 
in  whorls,  or  with  polished,  light  green,  lance- 
like,  scattered  leaves. 

"As  the  fresh,  dew-laden  petals  of  these 
new  creations,  which  had  never  been  spread 
out  to  the  light  of  day,  were  unrolled  before 
me,  a  new  world  of  beauty  seemed  to  have 
been  found  and  a  full  recompense  for  all  the 
care  bestowed  upon  them. 

"The  bulbs  are  a  study,  and  had  not  some 
of  them  been  in  value  ten  times  greater  than 
their  weight  in  gold,  photographs  would  have 
been  obtained  to  show  their  peculiar  forms. 
Nearly  all  these  new  lilies  are  crosses  from 
parent  species  selected  for  vigor,  hardiness, 
easy  management  and  rapid  multiplication,  as 
well  as  fragrance,  beauty  of  coloring,  grace 
and  abundance  of  flowers.  In  these  hybrids  a 
broad  foundation  has  been  laid  for  endless 
variations  which  will  reward  lovers  of  flowers 
for  ages  to  come." 

The  development  of  the  various  lilies  is 
going  on  under  Mr.  Burbank's  direction  upon 
a  still  more  extensive  scale. 

no 


CHAPTER  VII 

PLUMS   AND    PRUNES 

TT  would  be  difficult  to  reach  a  satisfactory 
•*•  estimate  of  the  amount  Mr.  Burbank's 
commercial  creations  have  already  added  to 
the  world's  wealth.  This  is  particularly  diffi- 
cult both  because  of  the  rapid  progression  of 
a  new  fruit  through  multiplication  in  different 
lands,  replacing  old  fruits  of  its  kind  season 
by  season,  and  because  of  the  large  number 
of  varieties  in  his  list,  each  one  filling  a  sepa- 
rate field.  For  example,  he  has  introduced 
over  twenty  varieties  of  plums  and  prunes, 
each  with  some  distinctive  and  valuable  char- 
acteristic, while  he  has  made  several  thousand 
new  plum  and  prune  combinations,  many  of 
which  are  now  under  test.  The  potato  which 
bears  his  name  has  increased  the  wealth  of 
the  United  States  by  many  millions  of  dollars, 
but  the  new  plums  and  prunes  promise  to 
exert  a  still  wider  commercial  and  economic 
influence.  One  entire  town  in  California, 

111 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

for  example,  has  been  built  up  very  largely 
upon  one  or  two  of  his  plums.  The  plums 
introduced  by  a  few  trees  in  a  region  which 
was  by  nature  and  climate  suited  to  them 
rapidly  increased  as  growers  saw  their  good 
points,  until  they  became  the  center  of  a 
packing  and  shipping  industry  employing 
thousands  of  people  in  the  growing  and 
preparation  of  the  fruit. 

Something  of  the  wide  -  reaching  influence 
of  the  new  plums  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
several  of  them  are  now  being  extensively 
cultivated  on  the  island  of  Borneo,  supplant- 
ing largely  the  native  fruits  of  this  type  and 
promising  to  revolutionize  the  fruit  culture 
of  the  island.  They  are  also  shipped  from 
Borneo  to  surrounding  countries.  The  late 
Cecil  Rhodes  became  so  much  interested  in 
the  work  of  Mr.  Burbank  that  he  ordered 
some  plum  grafts  for  his  extensive  fruit  ranch 
near  Cape  Town.  One  day  several  years 
afterward,  a  consignment  of  the  plums  which 
grew  from  these  cuttings  was  shipped  18,000 
miles  by  steamer  and  rail  from  Cape  Town 
to  San  Francisco,  as  a  test,  arriving  after  their 
long  journey  in  prime  condition.  From  many 

112 


PLUMS   AND   PRUNES 

other  points,  particularly  in  Europe,  have 
come  testimonials  from  those  who  have  intro- 
duced various  of  Mr.  Burbank's  plums,  all  the 
more  significant  because  the  stock  was  bought 
not  of  him  but  of  some  dealer  to  whom  in 
other  years  Mr.  Burbank  had  sold  the  original 
stock.  His  letter  files  are  full  of  the  heartiest 
thanks  from  American  fruit-raisers  for  having 
made  plums  and  prunes  which  have  very 
greatly  increased  their  revenues.  One  man 
enumerated  the  following  points  about  a  plum 
he  had  bought  of  Mr.  Burbank,  and  his  esti- 
mate of  the  fruit  may  be  taken  as  the  conden- 
sation of  hundreds  of  letters:  1.  A  more  rapid 
grower.  2.  An  earlier  bearer.  3.  An  earlier 
ripener.  4.  Larger  fruit.  5.  Richer  in  sugar. 
6.  Its  great  size  gives  it  a  distinct  commercial 
value  over  others. 

The  new  plums  and  prunes  have  been  pro- 
duced both  by  crossing  and  by  selection  of 
seedlings.  Sometimes  six  or  even  more  plums 
are  combined  in  crossing  to  get  just  the  char- 
acteristic desired.  In  other  cases,  the  new 
plum  has  come  from  the  seed.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  the  pits  are  planted  and,  out 
of  the  young  trees  which  grow,  the  most 

113 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

promising  ones  are  chosen  for  grafting.  These 
are  grafted  upon  older  trees,  scores  of  them, 
perhaps,  on  a  single  tree,  and  all  showing 
variations  of  leaf  and  fruit,  presenting  a  curi- 
ous and  striking  appearance  as  they  develop 
upon  the  same  parent  tree.  As  the  grafts 
develop  fruit  the  choicest  ones  are  saved  for 
further  testing  in  order  that,  out  of  hundreds 
of  thousands  originally  planted  as  seed,  only 
the  very  best  may  be  eventually  saved.  Color 
and  size  of  leaf,  shape  of  branch,  size,  color 
and  taste  of  fruit,  general  appearance  as  to 
hardiness  and  thrift,  prolificness, —  all  these 
and  other  points  Mr.  Burbank  has  under  con- 
sideration as  he  makes  his  selections  from 
season  to  season  in  his  search  for  the  best  of 
all.  Selection  here,  as  in  the  production  of  his 
flowers,  is  imperative, — always  the  best  from 
the  best. 

The  production  of  a  new  plum  is  not  lightly 
to  be  entered  upon,  particularly  when  the 
scale  of  the  work  is  that  of  Mr.  Burbank's. 
First  there  must  be  a  definite  pattern,  so  to 
speak,  in  mind.  If  prevailing  types  of  plums 
lack  symmetry  of  form  or  beauty  of  color,  the 
new  plum  must  be  planned  to  supply  these 

114 


PLUMS   AND   PRUNES 

deficiencies.  If  present  plums  are  too  small, 
larger  ones  must  be  made ;  if  bearing  scantily, 
more  prolific  ones;  if  injured  by  early  frosts 
and  adaptable  only  to  certain  regions,  then  a 
hardening  of  fruit  and  tree  and  an  expansion 
of  the  zone  of  culture.  Or  it  may  be  that  the 
aim  is  to  make  a  plum  which  assembles  all 
these  essentials  in  itself. 

To  accomplish  all  of  this  is  not  the  work 
of  a  day  nor  a  year,  perhaps  not  of  a  decade. 
Very  often  the  whole  world  will  be  searched 
for  a  plum  which  has  one  certain  characteristic 
essential  to  the  building  of  the  plum  under 
process.  It  may  be,  too,  that  when  this  for- 
eign plum  is  found,  apparently  filling  all  the 
requirements,  it  may  turn  out  no  better  than, 
perhaps  not  so  good  as,  some  plum  of  domes- 
tic growth.  The  mental  pattern  is  made  just 
as  real  and  definite  as  the  pattern  of  an  in- 
ventor or  the  model  of  a  sculptor.  If  the 
inventor,  as  his  work  advances,  discovers  some 
new  feature  which  will  make  the  invention 
more  valuable,  he  will  be  quick  to  make  use 
of  it;  and  even  the  sculptor,  in  modeling  his 
clay,  may  be  in  no  small  measure  influenced 
by  the  living  model  before  him.  But  even 

11* 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

more  may  the  plant-breeder  be  influenced  by 
change,  for,  as  in  any  one  of  the  new  plums 
upon  which  Mr.  Burbank  is  working,  some 
new  trait  of  surpassing  excellence  may  develop 
wholly  independent  of  his  original  plan.  At 
the  best,  the  metal  or  the  wood  of  the  in- 
ventor is  only  metal  or  wood,  the  clay  of  the 
sculptor  is  only  clay;  but  the  material  upon 
which  Mr.  Burbank  works  is  throbbing  with 
life,  as  truly  life,  even  if  a  lower  order,  as  the 
life  of  the  man  who  handles  it — life  that  is  some- 
times wayward,  sometimes  stubborn,  some- 
times bursting  forth  in  surpassing  beauty  or 
strength  in  lines  never  dreamed  of,  sometimes 
manifesting  itself  in  ways  spectacular,  indeed 
even  dramatic.  All  the  time,  while  holding  to 
his  pattern,  he  must  be  on  the  lookout  for 
important  departures. 

There  are  three  vital  points,  in  addition  to 
many  minor  ones,  which  Mr.  Burbank  con- 
siders in  the  gathering  of  material  upon  which 
to  build  a  new  plum: 

1.  He  must  have  at  the  base  a  hardy  plum, 
wild   or   tame;    for,   without   endurance,   the 
product  might  be  practically  worthless. 

2.  He  must  have  the  best  possible  plum  as 

116 


PLUMS   AND    PRUNES 

regards  richness  of  food  product ;  for,  without 
this,  his  new  plum  would  soon  be  detected  by 
the  public  and  cast  out  as  an  impostor. 

3.  He  must  have  the  most  attractive-look- 
ing plum  obtainable;  for  man  delights  to 
have  beautiful  fruit  on  his  table;  indeed, 
who  shall  say  how  large  a  part  it  plays  with 
his  digestion? 

So,  in  general,  these  three  basic  points  must 
be  considered,  in  addition  to  many  others,  in 
making  the  ideal  plum.  In  a  somewhat  con- 
tradictory sense  Mr.  Burbank  has  made  a 
good  many  ideal  plums,  each  one  having  some 
attribute  in  addition  to  the  essentials  and 
thereby  causing  it  to  be  peculiarly  distinctive. 

For  example,  he  has  bred  one  plum  with  a 
delicious  fragrance,  so  powerful  that  when  left 
in  a  closed  room  over  night  the  whole  apart- 
ment will  be  delightfully  saturated  with  the 
odor.  Another  plum  has  not  only  the  essen- 
tials but  it  has  a  flavor  wholly  distinct  from 
the  plum,  in  fact  it  is  not  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  Bartlett  pear.  So  marked  is  this 
characteristic  that  when  one  of  the  foremost 
fruiterers  of  the  world  tasted  the  plum  blind- 
folded, not  knowing  what  manner  of  fruit  he 

117 


NEW  CREATIONS    IN    PLANT   LIFE 

was  eating,  he  pronounced  it  unquestionably 
the  finest  Bartlett  pear  he  had  ever  tasted. 
Stranger  still,  as  the  plum  developed,  the  tree 
has  taken  on  much  of  the  character  of  the 
Bartlett  pear  tree  in  leaf  and  structure,  though 
why  no  one  can  tell,  for  it  has  never  had  the 
slightest  pear  tree  blood  in  its  veins. 

Still  another  plum  was  developed  which 
showed  phenomenal  bearing  qualities,  while 
also  being  otherwise  excellent.  It  was  so 
tremendously  prolific,  so  to  use  the  words, 
that  its  very  fecundity  stood  in  its  way.  Thus, 
wherever  grown,  hired  "strippers,"  as  they  are 
called,  must  be  engaged  to  go  into  the  or- 
chards when  the  fruit  is  green  and  strip  the 
branches  of  all  but  just  enough  plums  satis- 
factorily to  mature.  From  a  single  tree  by 
actual  count  22,000  plums  were  stripped, 
enough  even  then  being  left  on  the  tree 
to  yield  an  abundant  harvest. 

Another  plum  which  was  made  over  to 
order,  so  to  speak,  has  been  almost  similarly 
prolific.  It  was  a  small,  dull-colored,  bitter, 
wild  plum,  the  American  beach  plum,  unfit 
to  eat  unless  cooked.  It  was  a  remarkable 
plum  in  many  ways,  growing  on  almost  any 

118 


PLUMS   AND   PRUNES 

soil,  frequently  in  places  rejected  by  all  other 
vegetation.  It  would  grow  on  sandy  soil  or 
heavy  clay  soil,  on  desert -like  places,  and  on 
soil  which  now  and  then  is  submerged  by  the 
sea.  It  would  grow  in  the  drought  as  well  as 
in  seasons  of  rain.  In  fruit  it  was  remarkably 
prolific,  though  the  fruit  was  worthless.  The 
plums  were  not  much  larger  than  small 
cherries,  usually  less  than  half  an  inch  in  diam- 
eter, the  pit  being  relatively  large  and  sur- 
rounded by  a  thin  layer  of  bitter  meat.  There 
were  quite  a  good  many  varieties,  some 
ripening  early,  some  late,  and  all  of  them 
very  hardy  as  regards  frost. 

It  was  this  insignificant  fruit  that  Mr. 
Burbank  took  under  his  care  one  day,  seeing 
its  possibilities  and  eager  to  ennoble  it. 

By  the  utmost  care  in  selecting  and  breed- 
ing through  a  series  of  years,  the  homely  little 
outcast  has  been  made  into  a  beautiful  deep- 
purple  plum,  dotted  with  white,  averaging  at 
least  three  inches  in  circumference,  without  a 
trace  of  the  old  bitter  taste  in  all  its  rich 
yellow  meat.  The  new  plum  has  all  the 
staying  qualities  of  the  hardy  little  ancestor 
and  will  thrive  in  warm  regions  or  frost  belts, 

119 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

on  fertile  soil  or  barren  soil.  The  branches  are 
so  closely  packed  at  bearing  time  that  there  is 
no  room  for  leaves,  only  a  solid  compact 
mass  of  fruit. 

But  a  more  wonderful  plum  than  any  of 
these  has  been  made  by  Mr.  Burbank,  a  plum 
without  pit.  This  plum  has  not  been  placed 
upon  the  market  because  not  entirely  finished, 
though  the  pit  has  been  bred  out  of  it.  For 
about  two  centuries  there  had  been  growing 
in  France  a  tiny  plum,  so  called,  with  only  a 
suggestion  of  a  pit.  Mr.  Burbank  took  this 
plum,  bred  it  with  other  plums  to  increase 
its  size  and  beauty,  and  injected  into  it  a  rich 
new  life.  Years  passed  by  in  the  testing,  and 
at  last  the  pit  of  the  large  luscious  plum  which 
was  the  result  of  the  years  of  breeding  has 
disappeared.  It  only  remains  now  a  matter  of 
time  to  breed  the  pits  from  all  plums  and 
prunes  and  leave  in  their  places  so  much  more 
room  for  rich,  nutritious  food.  More  than  one 
skeptical  person,  numbering  among  them 
some  prominent  scientists  of  Europe  and 
America,  has  stood  beside  one  of  the  many 
trees  which  bear  these  stoneless  plums  upon 
Mr.  Burbank's  proving  grounds  at  Sebastopol 

120 


PLUMS   AND   PRUNES 

and  has  been  asked  to  take  his  knife  and  cut 
one  of  the  plums  in  two.  The  surprise  then 
shown,  sometimes  deepening  into  an  apparent 
distrust  of  their  own  senses,  has  been  one  of 
the  most  delightful  and  one  of  the  most  prized 
compliments  Mr.  Burbank  has  ever  received. 

There  are  two  main  lines  in  plum  life  as 
known  in  the  fruit-growing  regions  of  this 
country,  one  leading  to  the  plum  proper,  the 
other  to  the  prune.  Mr.  Burbank  gives  this 
definition,  which  has  been  adopted  as  practi- 
cally covering  the  ground:  "Any  plum  which 
will  dry  in  the  sun  without  spoiling  is 
a  prune." 

The  reason  why  the  plums  which  thus 
become  prunes  take  on  this  dried  shape  is 
because  of  their  large  sugar -content,  which 
enables  them,  like  raisins,  to  preserve  them- 
selves, as  one  might  say,  in  their  own  sugar. 
The  object  of  Mr.  Burbank  has  been  not  only 
to  make  prunes  which  are  larger  in  size  than 
the  old  ones,  but  which  are  relatively  richer  in 
the  amount  of  sweetness. 

The  prune  has  become  one  of  the  important 
items  in  the  dietary  of  the  nations,  perhaps 
even  more  highly  appreciated  abroad.  The 

121 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN    PLANT   LIFE 

American  prune  has  come  more  and  more 
into  favor  in  Europe.  In  fact,  so  desirable  a 
prune  is  it  that  the  French  packers  in 
season  of  scarcity  at  home  import  the  Cali- 
fornia prunes,  give  them  their  own  method 
of  treatment,  re-pack  them,  pay  the  Ameri- 
can duty,  and  send  them  back  in  large 
quantities  to  the  United  States  as  prime 
French  prunes.  California  prunes  are  also  in 
marked  demand  for  home  consumption  in  Eu- 
rope, largely  supplanting  the  domestic  product. 
This  is  shown  by  the  steadily  increasing  export 
prune  trade  of  the  United  States  to  Europe, 
and  along  with  this  goes  a  steadily  decreasing 
import  trade.  In  1890-91  nearly  thirty-five 
millions  of  pounds  of  prunes  were  imported 
into  the  United  States,  at  a  value  of  over  two 
million  dollars.  Year  by  year  since  that  time, 
with  occasional  fluctuations,  the  importation 
has  declined,  until,  in  1904,  the  thirty-five  mil- 
lions of  pounds  shrank  to  less  than  five  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds,  at  a  value  of  only 
$47,000.  And  out  of  the  total  amount  im- 
ported a  very  large  proportion  was  grown  in 
the  United  States  as  noted,  exported  and 
re-imported. 


PLUMS   AND   PRUNES 

From  1897  to  1904,  inclusive,  the  export  of 
American  prunes  was  about  two  hundred  and 
fourteen  million  pounds. 

In  1894-5  the  prune  crop  of  California 
amounted  to  about  sixty-five  million  pounds; 
in  1904  it  had  risen  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
million  pounds,  while,  during  the  decade,  one 
billion,  one  hundred  and  ninety -one  millions 
of  pounds  were  raised.  Large  quantities  are 
also  raised  in  the  adjoining  states  of  Oregon 
and  Washington.  In  California  alone  there 
were,  in  1904,  nearly  seven  million,  five  hun- 
dred thousand  prune  trees  in  bearing. 

While  there  are  a  number  of  varieties  of 
prunes,  the  ones  which  Mr.  Burbank  has  made 
are  steadily  advancing  and  supplanting  the 
older  varieties.  It  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  the 
influence  of  Mr.  Burbank  is  becoming  one  of 
the  greatest  factors  in  the  development  of  the 
prune  industry  of  the  United  States,  an  in- 
dustry which  now  has  become  a  staple  asset  of 
the  nation.  Many  thousands  of  people  find 
employment  in  the  picking  and  packing  of 
this  fruit  as  well  as  in  the  care  of  orchards, 
while  vast  sums  of  money  are  invested. 

The   production   of    plums    has   also   been 

123 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

greatly  influenced  by  Mr.  Burbank.  Year  by 
year  he  has  given  new  plums  to  the  markets, 
a  long  time  elapsing,  of  course,  before  they 
make  their  way,  because  they  must  first  be 
tested  by  him  for  a  series  of  years  in  order 
to  see  that  they  maintain  their  standard,  and 
several  additional  years  must  elapse  before 
enough  can  be  grown  to  supply  commercial 
demands.  But  as  each  new  plum  comes  for- 
ward, its  excellencies  at  once  appeal  to  the 
public,  and  the  growers  are  hard  pushed  to 
supply  the  demand.  While  he  constantly  has 
in  mind  the  production  of  plums  beautiful  to 
look  upon,  he  pays  particular  attention  to  the 
shipping  qualities.  The  plums  must  be  not 
only  beautiful  but  they  must  withstand  long 
journeys  by  rail  and  water.  So  he  has  bred  his 
plums  with  this  in  mind,  and  has  made  them 
firmer  of  flesh  and  skin — has  given  them  en- 
durance. Many  illustrations  might  be  given  of 
the  keeping  qualities  of  the  plums,  but  one 
will  suffice.  Some  plums  were  sent  from 
Santa  Rosa  by  mail,  of  course  without  any  of 
the  aids  of  refrigerator  cars.  It  was  done  as  a 
test  of  their  endurance.  They  were  intended 
to  be  sent  to  a  point  in  Virginia,  but,  by  mis- 


PLUMS    AND   PRUNES 

take,  went  to  Vermont  and,  there  being  no 
delivery,  they  were  returned.  After  having 
made  the  trans-continental  journey  twice  by 
mail,  they  were  as  fresh  and  fine  of  appearance 
and  as  luscious  to  the  taste  as  the  ones  picked 
from  the  trees  upon  the  day  of  their  arrival  in 
Santa  Rosa,  after  their  long  journey. 

As  rapidly  as  he  has  perfected  a  plum  or  a 
prune,  it  passes  from  his  hands  and  others  reap 
the  profits, — but  he  has  accomplished  his 
object,  he  has  given  something  new  and  help- 
ful to  the  world.  While  he  has  the  fine  true 
imagination  of  the  poet  and  a  nature  in  closest 
harmony  with  all  that  is  beautiful,  at  the  same 
time  he  sees  things  from  an  intensely  practical 
point  of  view.  Upon  this  practical  side  of  his 
work  he  has  some  decided  views.  He  says: 

"With  the  world  as  a  market,  competi- 
tion is  keen,  and  only  the  best  fruits  in  the 
best  condition  will  pay ;  fortunately,  it  gene- 
rally costs  much  less  per  ton  to  produce  large, 
first-class  fruit  than  to  produce  the  poorest 
and  meanest  specimens  that  are  ever  offered. 
Small  fruit  exhausts  the  tree  much  more 
rapidly  than  large  fruit,  as  one  pound  of  skin, 
stones  and  seeds  represents  at  least  ten  or 

125 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN    PLANT   LIFE 

twelve  pounds  of  fruit  pulp;  it  will  thus 
readily  be  seen  that  improved  varieties  which 
produce  uniformly  large,  fine  fruit  are  more 
economical  manufacturers  of  fruit,  and  also 
that  the  product  is  more  salable  ;  the  difference 
in  many  cases  will  decide  between  success  and 
failure. 

"Many  varieties  have  two  or  three  superior 
qualities,  but  woefully  lack  in  many  others. 
Some  have  a  very  weak  and  imperfect  root 
system,  no  matter  on  what  stock  they  may  be 
grafted;  others  -have  scanty  foliage,  which 
readily  falls  a  prey  to  drought  or  to  fungus  or 
insect  enemies.  Others  are  especially  subject 
to  blossom  blight*  by  late  spring  frosts,  parch- 
ing winds  or  rains.  Still  others,  though 
bearing  the  best  of  fruit,  are  so  sparing  of  it 
that  they  are  outstripped  by  others  of  less 
value.  Numerous  other  faults  are  too  well 
known  to  all  observing  fruit-growers. 

"The  fruit-grower  of  today  is  strictly  a 
manufacturer  and  should  have  the  latest  and 
best  improvements.  The  manufacturer  of  pins 
and  nails  would  not  long  tolerate  a  machine 
which  failed  to  produce  pins  and  nails  every 
other  season,  or  one  which  produced  even 

126 


PLUMS   AND   PRUNES 

occasionally  an  ill-assorted,  rusty,  unmarket- 
able product.  And,  revolutionary  as  it  may  at 
first  thought  appear,  there  is  no  good  reason 
for  permanently  producing  poor  fruit;  for  in 
time  new  trees  will  be  produced  which  will 
produce  good  fruit  with  the  utmost  regularity 
and  precision.  Of  course,  there  never  can  be 
one  variety  which  will  be  the  best  for  all 
purposes,  but  it  is  perfectly  possible  to  produce 
varieties  which,  for  their  own  special  use,  can 
be  relied  upon  to  yield  full  crops  of  the  best 
fruits  without  fail;  all  this  must  be  done  by 
careful  selection  and  breeding. 

"It  has  been  said  that  it  were  better  for  a 
man  that  a  millstone  be  hung  around  his  neck 
and  that  he  be  cast  into  the  sea  than  that  he 
should  introduce  a  fruit  or  flower  which  should 
prove  to  be  of  no  value.  In  the  introduction 
of  a  fruit  or  flower,  no  one  who  has  not  been 
through  the  experience  can  fully  appreciate 
the  sense  of  responsibility,  and  no  one  can 
more  deeply  lament  a  failure  than  the 
introducer." 

It  will  be  of  interest  to  note  here  some  of 
the  more  prominent  among  the  plums  and 
prunes  which  Mi.  Burbank  has  produced: 

127 


NEW    CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

1885  —  "Burbank"  plum,  "Satsuma"  plum, 
imported  from  Japan  with  numerous  others; 
improved,  and  introduced. 

1893 — First  Japanese- American  hybrid  plum 
"Gold";  introduced. 

1893 — "Splendor"  prune;  introduced. 

1893  —  "Wickson"  plum;  introduced. 

1893 —  "Delaware"  hybrid  plum,  "Juicy" 
plum,  "October  Purple"  plum;  introduced. 

1893  — "Hale"  plum;  introduced. 

1894  —  "Giant"  prune;  introduced. 
1894 — "Doris"  plum;  introduced. 

1898  — "America,"  "Chalco"  and  "Apple" 
plums;  introduced. 

1899— "Climax,"  "Sultan,"  "Bartlett"  and 
"Shiro"  plums;  introduced, 

1899  —  "Sugar"  prune;  introduced. 

1901  —  "First"  and  " Combination "  plums ; 
introduced. 

1901 — Many  stoneless  prunes;  originated. 

This  does  not  by  any  means  include  all  the 
plums  and  prunes  Mr.  Burbank  has  produced 
which  have  shown  desirable  qualities,  but 
only  such  ones  as  have  shown  unusual  fitness 
to  live.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  others  are 
now  under  test.  It  would  be  idle  to  attempt  a 

128 


PLUMS   AND   PRUNES 

prophecy  of  the  value  of  such  of  these  new 
plums  and  prunes  as  are  finally  chosen.  They 
are  not  only  likely  to  supplant  all  those  plums 
hitherto  produced  by  Mr.  Burbank,  as  well  as 
those  in  existence  when  he  began  his  work, 
but,  through  the  elimination  of  the  pit  and 
the  substitution  in  its  place  of  that  much 
more  nutriment,  relentlessly  drive  out  of  the 
market  all  the  standard  prunes  which  now 
furnish  the  world's  supply. 


129 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE    SHASTA    DAISY 

HHHE  green  hills  rising  behind  the  house 
-*-  where  Luther  Burbank  was  born  were 
ever  an  inviting  place  in  his  boyhood  days. 
He  knew  the  haunts  of  the  wild  flowers  and 
the  hour  of  their  earliest  appearing.  From 
the  time  the  snows  gave  way  to  the  spring 
sun  until  they  came  again  in  the  bleak  No- 
vember days,  he  was  in  constant  intercourse 
with  the  hills,  learning  the  language  of  Nature 
in  the  only  school  where  it  is  taught  without 
an  interpreter.  Something  in  his  own  nature 
brought  him  into  instant  contact  and  sym- 
pathy with  the  great  heart  of  the  Nature 
around  him.  A  certain  peculiar  intimacy  with 
Nature  grew  up  and  produced,  if  one  may  so  put 
it,  the  most  absolute  frankness  toward  her  and 
trust  in  her.  This  was  well  illustrated  one  day 
in  his  maturer  years  when  a  great  scientist 
called  upon  Mr.  Burbank,  Dr.  Hugo  de  Vries, 
of  Amsterdam,  certainly  one  of  the  leading 

130 


THE    SHASTA   DAISY 

botanists  of  his  generation.  The  two  men  were 
in  deep  consideration  of  some  of  the  most 
profound  processes  of  Nature,  when  de  Vries 
made  some  remark  in  which  there  was  a  sug- 
gestion of  the  unreliability  of  Nature. 

"You  are  wrong!  Dr.  de  Vries,"  Burbank 
instantly  replied  with  great  earnestness,  ignor- 
ing for  the  moment  all  scientific  topics  in 
order  to  come  to  the  defense  of  his  vast  friend; 
"you  are  all  wrong;  Nature  never  lies.  We 
may  sometimes  misunderstand  her,  we  may 
not  always  be  able  to  speak  her  language  or 
properly  translate  her  thoughts,  but  Nature 
never  lies." 

The  great  botanist  sat  some  time  in  silence, 
and  then  gravely  nodded  his  head. 

There  were  many  flowers  upon  the  green 
hills  around  his  boyhood  home  that  the  lad 
loved,  violets  and  asters ;  the  royal  goldenrod ; 
that  soft  breath  of  the  spring,  the  delicate  anem- 
one ;  roses  and  lilies  and  the  trailing  arbutus  in 
their  seasons;  but  there  was  one  flower  in 
which  he  took  a  particular  interest,  possibly 
because  every  man's  hand  was  against  it.  This 
was  the  little  wild  field  daisy,  to  many  a 
farmer  an  unmitigated  evil,  a  pest  to  be  fought 

131 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

at  every  possible  point,  a  vicious,  persistent 
weed.  When  he  had  begun  his  market  gar- 
dening and  seed-raising,  he  frequently  went  to 
the  hills  for  wild  flower  seeds,  planting  them 
in  his  garden  and  observing  with  curious  inter- 
est how  the  plants  sometimes  varied  from  the 
parent  plants.  A  certain  chivalry,  it  may  have 
been,  a  desire  to  reclaim  the  daisy  from  the 
company  of  the  outcast  weeds,  caused  him 
to  include  it  also  in  his  experiments.  He 
found  the  daisy  no  less  striking  in  its  varia- 
tions than  the  other  plants. 

There  came  a  day  in  after  years  when  he 
was  to  demonstrate  again  his  interest  in  this 
little  waif,  to  become  its  champion  in  a  still 
larger  way.  For  he  had  laid  out  in  his  mind  a 
scheme  for  the  ennoblement  of  this  flower;— 
he  would  lift  it  from  its  low  estate  among  the 
serfs  and  make  it  a  queen. 

In  England  there  grew  a  daisy  larger  than 
his  little  wild  friend  and  coarser  in  stem  and 
flower.  In  Japan  grew  another  daisy,  not 
large,  but  of  exquisite  purity  of  color  and 
almost  dazzling  whiteness.  On  the  Massachu- 
setts hills  grew  the  American  daisy,  small, 
tenacious  of  life,  hardy  of  constitution,  not  so 


THE   SHASTA   DAISY 

white  in  its  petals  as  its  distant  Japanese 
relative,  not  so  large  as  its  English  cousin — he 
would  unite  the  three.  In  order  that  the  very 
best  results  might  follow,  he  searched  through 
a  number  of  states,  as  time  and  opportunity 
offered,  getting  the  best  native  wild  daisies 
from  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey 
and  Massachusetts,  and  from  these  best  ones 
chose  the  best  of  them  all.  Sometimes,  as 
happened  in  several  instances  with  the  daisy, 
he  will  be  making  a  short  journey  by  rail  and, 
looking  out  the  window,  may  see,  as  the  train 
flashes  by,  some  particularly  striking  patch  of 
flowers.  At  the  next  station  he  gets  out  and 
either  buys  a  ticket  back  to  a  station  nearer 
the  flowers  or  walks  back  to  them,  and  then 
selects  from  them  the  choicest  plants  for  use 
in  some  experiment  under  way. 

So  from  three  continents  he  chose  a  daisy, 
the  best  he  could  get; — from  them  he  made 
a  fourth,  the  most  wonderful  daisy  ever  seen. 

In  setting  out  thus  to  make  a  new  flower 
out  of  old  ones,  Mr.  Burbank  does  not  depend 
upon  any  rules  laid  down  for  him  by  some  one 
else.  While  he  is  never  destructive  but  always 
constructive,  aiming  to  create  new  forms  of 

133 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

life  that  shall  be  better  than  the  old,  he  is 
restive  under  rules.  If  such  were  imposed 
upon  him,  it  would  be  but  natural  that  he 
should  at  once  proceed  to  break  them,  not  so 
much  for  the  delight  of  breaking  them  as  a 
protest  against  conventionality.  He  does  not 
start  out  among  his  flowers  in  the  dawn  of  a 
spring  morning  with  a  book  on  botany  in  one 
hand  and  a  treatise  on  plant-breeding  in  the 
other.  Had  he  done  so,  there  would  have 
been  no  Luther  Burbank.  He  utterly  ignores 
much  of  what  so-called  scientists  have  set 
down.  Nor  does  he  depend  upon  scientific 
nomenclature  unless  it  is  sensible.  In  his 
conversations  he  is  peculiarly  free  from  scien- 
tific terminology;  so  direct  and  simple  is  his 
speech  that  the  greatest  scientist  and  an 
unlettered  farm  laborer  may  sit  side  by  side 
and  both  understand.  I  cannot  better  illus- 
trate this  than  by  a  single  word  which  I  saw 
on  a  box  high  up  in  his  storehouse  of  rare 
seeds  and  bulbs.  The  box  contained  seeds  that 
for  some  reason  had  been  carefully  sterilized. 
The  outside  bore  this  word,  written  in  bold 
letters:  "Boiled." 

This  word  bore  a  volume. 

134 


THE    SHASTA   DAISY 

In  the  scheme  laid  out  for  the  new  daisy 
there  were  certain  well -defined  characteristics 
to  be  developed;  a  fact  that  illustrates  how 
systematic  and  precise  his  work.  He  wished  a 
daisy  that  should  have  grace,  beauty,  hardi- 
ness. He  wanted  a  slender  but  firm  stem  at 
least  two  feet  in  length,  free  from  all  branches; 
a  blossom  larger  than  any  daisy  ever  before 
seen ;  petals  of  the  purest  white.  And  so  seeds 
from  these  plants  from  distant  quarters  of  the 
globe  were  sown,  and  when  they  came  to 
blossom  he  crossed  them,  combining  each  with 
the  other,  joining  them  in  a  union  as  intimate 
as  life,  as  powerful  as  death.  For  he  was 
compelled  to  put  to  death  their  old  selves ; 
—  their  life -long  habits,  their  manner  of 
life, —  even  their  form  and  texture,  all  must 
give  way ;  —  and  from  this  death  he  would 
bring  forth  a  resurrection. 

So  completely  was  the  pollinating  done 
that  after  the  merging  was  ended  the  strain  of 
blood,  so  to  call  it,  of  each  plant  now  flowed 
in  the  veins  of  one.  And  yet  this  act  of 
fertilization  or  hybridization  or  new  birth,  call 
it  what  you  will,  was  but  an  incident  in  the 
creation — the  great  struggle  was  ahead. 

135 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT  LIFE 

The  seeds  from  the  first  united  flower  were 
not  more  than  six  or  eight  in  number.  These 
were  sown,  and  from  the  plants  which  grew 
only  the  very  best  and  those  approaching  the 
ideal  were  chosen,  so  that  at  the  second  stage 
of  the  test  there  were  probably  fifty  seeds. 
This,  of  course,  gave  a  greatly  enlarged  num- 
ber in  the  progression,  and  soon  there  were  a 
hundred  thousand  seeds,  all  having  come  from 
plants  which  had  been  selected  from  their 
fellows.  These  hundred  thousand  seeds  were 
sown  in  a  box  of  earth  about  ten  feet 
square,  at  the  home  grounds  at  Santa  Rosa. 
Great  precautions  have  to  be  taken  to  prevent 
the  birds  and  other  pests,  as  gophers,  moles, 
and  worms  from  doing  damage,  as  well  as  to 
provide  against  various  plant  diseases.  One 
gopher  or  one  flock  of  thievish  birds  may 
undo  in  an  hour  the  work  of  years. 

As  soon  as  the  plants  were  large  enough  to 
transplant,  they  were  taken  up  and  set  out 
again  at  Sebastopol  on  a  plot  of  ground  an 
acre  or  more  in  extent.  The  ground  had  been 
the  scene  of  many  another  wonderful  experi- 
ment; for  the  earth  at  Sebastopol  is  no  sooner 
relieved  of  one  absorbingly  interesting  test 

136 


THE   SHASTA   DAISY 

than  another  is  ready — there  has  never  been 
another  plot  of  earth  with  such  strange  ex- 
periences in  the  history  of  the  world. 

In  this  act  of  transplanting,  and  indeed,  in 
every  other  act  in  these  experimentations,  the 
utmost  care  is  necessary.  There  is  much  work 
which  Mr.  Burbank  cannot  delegate.  Certain 
things  he  can  assign  to  others,  but  he  will  not 
delegate  any  work  to  hands  not  in  sympathy 
and  closest  touch  with  Nature.  The  men  to 
care  for  this  new  field  of  daisies  must  be  those 
who  not  only  know  how  deftly  to  remove 
weeds,  how  to  note  and  guard  against  all  the 
ills  a  plant  falls  heir  to,  but  they  must  be  men 
of  keen  and  intimate  sympathy  with  the  work 
itself.  The  men  who  do  this  work  are  picked 
men,  picked  among  thousands.  So  very  many 
applications  for  work  under  Mr.  Burbank  are 
made  that  he  early  gave  up  answering  by  per- 
sonal letter,  and  printed  forms  are  sent  out, 
kindly  but  clear.  Many  graduates  of  univer- 
sities and  colleges  are  among  the  number. 
The  very  gentleness  and  modesty  of  the  man 
frequently  have  been  misunderstood  by  these 
young  men  fresh  from  their  books;  and,  liter- 
ally running  over  with  information,  they  have 

137 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

hastened  with  all  sincerity  to  give  him  the 
benefit  of  their  knowledge  and  to  furnish  him 
with  pointers  for  the  carrying  on  of  his  work. 
But  while  he  would  never  discharge  a  man 
because  he  was  a  university  graduate, — for  he 
has  an  ardent  sympathy  for  all  higher  educa- 
tion that  is  sane,  symmetrical,  and  devoid  of 
veneer, — yet  he  has  never  been  able  to  keep 
in  service  a  single  university  student.  Time 
and  again  some  enthusiastic  young  fellow 
would  enter  upon  the  work,  and,  bred  to  the 
nomenclature  and  the  traditions  of  the  scien- 
tists, would  at  once  begin  enlightening  Mr. 
Burbank  on  the  best  plan  to  follow  in  a  given 
instance,  forgetting  that  the  silent  man  pa- 
tiently listening  to  him  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  plant-breeders  of  the  world. 

Not  only  does  he  demand  sympathy  upon 
the  part  of  his  workmen  and  the  rarest  intelli- 
gence obtainable,  but  he  demands  absolute 
sobriety.  Much  of  the  work  of  pollenation, 
grafting,  budding,  seed-sowing,  and  even  so 
apparently  simple  a  piece  of  work  as  the  re- 
moving of  weeds  from  around  thousands  of 
the  tiny  plants,  requires  the  very  steadiest  of 
nerves,  so  that  no  workman  may  use  tobacco 

138 


THE   SHASTA   DAISY 

or  liquor  in  any  form,  or  any  manner  of  stimu- 
lant that  will  befog  a  brain  or  benumb  a 
nerve. 

When  the  hundred  thousand  daisies  were 
well  started  in  their  new  home,  selection 
began, — as  important  an  act  in  its  way  as  the 
act  of  breeding  by  which  they  were  brought 
into  being.  During  the  six  months  that  they 
were  in  bloom,  they  were  subjected  to  con- 
stant supervision  and  scrutiny.  Twice  a  week 
the  entire  field  was  scanned  by  an  eye  that 
has  perhaps  never  been  equaled  for  percep- 
tiveness.  The  variations  from  the  parent  stock 
in  leaf,  stalk,  petal,  size — all  were  noted,  and 
the  instant  a  plant  was  found  which  in  any 
one  of  these  particulars  threw  light  upon  the 
general  problem,  it  was  set  apart.  Now  and 
then  there  would  be  one  with  grace  and 
strength  but  no  beauty,  again  one  with  a 
wonderful  blossom  on  a  stumpy  little  stem, 
now  one  on  a  lovely  long  stem  but  cloudy 
as  to  color. 

In  all  such  work  Mr.  Burbank  carries  with 
him  a  small  ivory  rule,  with  which  he  takes 
constant  measurements  of  stalk  and  blossom. 
The  length  and  width  of  the  petals,  as 

139 


NEW  CREATIONS   IN   PLANT  LIFE 

well  as  the  span  of  the  whole  flower,  are  im- 
portant. The  object  of  these  measurements  is 
to  find  the  plants  which  are  coming  nearest 
to  the  ideal  in  his  mind. 

Out  of  the  hundred  thousand  plants,  those 
were  chosen  which  came  nearest  this  ideal  and 
their  seeds  were  in  turn  planted.  This  process 
v  was  repeated  for  eight  years.  In  the  process 
of  development  that  which  often  happens  in 
his  tests  was  seen, — certain  plants  produced 
what  might  be  called  unnaturally  large  and 
beautiful  flowers.  Sometimes  the  bloom  of  a 
single  daisy  would  measure  very  nearly  two 
feet  in  circumference,  seven  inches  from  tip  to 
tip  of  petals.  At  first  thought,  these  plants 
would  be  the  ones  naturally  to  be  chosen  from 
all  the  others.  But  not  so.  They  had  grown 
to  their  great  size  under  peculiarly  favorable 
conditions,  both  of  climate,  soil  and  super- 
vision. The  aim  in  creating  these  plants  was 
to  fit  them  for  the  general  public,  for  the 
flower  lovers  of  the  world;  for  Alaska  and 
Florida,  for  Norway  and  Italy;  for  all  sorts  of 
soil,  climates  and  people.  It  would  be  rare, 
indeed,  that  they  would  receive  more  than  the 
average  treatment  of  the  average  gardener; 


THE   SHASTA  DAISY 

never  would  they  find  another  such  a  master 
as  they  had  had. 

So  average  conditions  must  be  taken  into 
account,  and  an  average  best  flower  be  made 
for  these  conditions.  It  is  a  cardinal  principle 
of  Mr.  Burbank's  life  never  to  let  a  plant  de- 
ceive him  by  show  of  some  surpassing  excel- 
lence which,  under  ordinary  conditions,  would 
not  be  apt  to  manifest  itself.  "If  I  deceive 
myself,"  he  puts  it,  "I  deceive  the  public, 
too."  From  the  medium  plants  the  stock  was 
grown  and  re -grown  until  he  produced  a 
flower  at  last  combining  all  the  desirable 
qualities  with  adaptability  to  average  condi- 
tions. This  flower  was  from  three  inches  in 
diameter  for  the  smaller  ones  to  over  six 
inches  in  diameter  where  conditions  ap- 
proached the  ideal. 

In  breeding  these  new  daisies  still  another 
attribute  was  constantly  in  mind,  that  of 
hardiness,  hardiness  in  the  growing  plant, 
keeping  qualities  in  the  cut -flowers.  So  all 
through  the  tests  only  the  sturdiest  plants 
were  kept;  all  the  weak  and  sickly  ones  were 
at  once  destroyed.  It  was  for  this  very  charac- 
teristic of  endurance  that  the  little  wild  daisy, 

141 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

with  its  tenacity  of  life  and  its  ability  to  with- 
stand heat  and  cold,  was  chosen.  So  when  the 
end  came  a  flower  was  produced  that  would 
grow  equally  well  inside  the  arctic  circle  and 
under  the  equator.  The  cut-flowers,  too,  will 
remain  fresh  and  beautiful  in  water  for  from 
three  to  six  weeks.  A  gift  of  some  of  his 
choicest  stock  which  graced  a  Thanksgiving 
table  was  still  beautiful  at  Christmas. 

As  Mr.  Burbank  puts  it,  they  will  grow 
anywhere  out-of-doors  where  it  is  not  cold 
enough  to  kill  an  oak  tree,  and  they  will  grow 
for  anybody.  They  are  perennial,  increasing 
in  number  of  blossoms  from  year  to  year.  But 
if,  at  the  first,  the  plant  is  left  to  itself  it  will 
blossom  itself  to  death  the  first  year.  All  but 
one  or  two  of  the  first  buds  must  be  removed, 
and  sometimes  not  a  single  one  is  left.  Thus 
treated,  the  plants  strengthen  themselves  and, 
after  the  first  season,  a  single  clump  will  bear 
from  two  hundred  to  five  hundred  of  the  huge 
white  blossoms.  The  plants  may  be  multi- 
plied indefinitely  thereafter  simply  by  dividing 
them  at  the  roots.  They  will  blossom  for  sev- 
eral months  in  the  average  temperate  zone 
climate,  in  California  blooming  six  months  or 


T3 

W  OJ 

<U  js 

«  H 


5 


THE   SHASTA   DAISY 

more  out  of  the  twelve;  under  specially  fa- 
vorable conditions,  throughout  the  whole  year. 

An  extremely  interesting  feature  of  the 
new  flower  is  that  it  seems  to  have  lost  all 
its  bad  habits.  Where  once  it  was,  at  the  best, 
a  pest  to  be  dreaded,  multiplying  with  remark- 
able rapidity  and  driving  absolutely  necessary 
food  products  to  the  wall,  it  now  keeps  itself 
apart  from  the  weeds  of  its  ancestry  in  a  cer- 
tain aristocratic  exclusiveness. .  It  produces 
but  very  little  seed  and  that  large  in  size. 
Mr.  Burbank  has  grown  millions  of  the  plants 
in  his  tests,  but  a  self-sown  daisy  has  never 
appeared  upon  his  grounds. 

The  flower  itself  is  one  of  remarkable 
beauty,  a  rare,  well-nigh  brilliant  white  of 
great  size,  the  center  a  pure  yellow,  with  long, 
graceful  stems.  It  is  not  only  highly  decora- 
tive in  the  mass,  forming  a  magnificent  note 
in  garden  or  lawn,  but  it  lends  itself  with  a 
grace  all  its  own  to  the  bride  at  the  altar  or 
for  the  last  tender  tribute  to  the  dead.  From 
the  first  time  he  saw  it,  Mr.  Burbank  had 
always  held  in  deep  veneration  Mount  Shasta, 
a  snow-capped  peak  of  the  high  Sierras,  one 
of  the  conspicuous  landmarks  of  California. 

143 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT  LIFE 

As  the  name  of  the  mountain  means  white, 
and  as  its  summit  is  always  covered  with  a 
coronal  of  snow,  he  chose  the  name  as  pecu- 
liarly fitting  for  such  a  flower. 

Now  and  again  Mr.  Burbank  creates  some 
flower  or  plant  which  to  him  seems  practically 
perfect ;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  so  nearly  up  to  his 
ideal  that  he  does  not  think  it  necessary 
or  profitable  to  give  any  further  time  to  it. 
Again,  he  leaves  a  flower  in  its  class  by  itself, 
perfected  as  far  as  his  hands  may  make  it,  and 
then  fashions  another  from  the  material  that 
was  left  over.  The  new  flower  may  have  cer- 
tain characteristics  of  the  completed  one,  but 
it  will  have  others  so  very  different  it  becomes 
a  practically  individual  creation.  In  the  breed- 
ing of  the  daisy  some  peculiarly  interesting 
and  curious  variations  are  developed.  In  cer- 
tain plants  these  variations  assume  what  are 
called  abnormalities,  while  in  other  cases  they 
are  irregularities, — irregular  but  undeniably 
beautiful.  Certain  of  the  hybrid  daisies  showed 
a  tendency  to  become  double,  their  petals  in 
some  cases  also  being  strangely  convoluted. 
The  doubling  was  somewhat  in  the  manner  of 
the  chrysanthemum.  This  tendency  was  en- 

144 


THE   SHASTA   DAISY 

couraged,  and  gradually,  led  onward  from  year 
to  year,  the  petals  multiplied  in  number, 
crowded  closer  and  closer  into  the  golden 
center,  until,  finally,  a  completely  perfect 
double  blossom  was  produced,  even  larger 
than  the  Shasta,  entirely  white.  In  form  it 
suggests  the  chrysanthemum,  though  quite 
distinct  from  its  Japanese  friend  in  character 
and  promising  to  become  a  notable  rival.  It 
differs  also  in  length  of  blooming  time,  its 
period  extending  over  five  to  six  months  in- 
stead of  the  one  month  of  the  chrysanthemum. 
Hundreds  of  flowers  have  passed  through 
some  such  life  history  as  this  at  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Burbank.  Some  have  been  led  in  one 
direction,  some  in  another,  but  all  led  upward 
to  a  more  beautiful  life,  all  glorified  by  his 
touch.  Many  years  of  his  life  have  been 
crowded  to  the  utmost  with  the  details  of 
what  may  be  called  utilitarian  productions, 
forms  of  plant  life  whose  chief  value  is  to  add 
to  the  wealth  of  nations.  It  would  be  quite 
impossible  to  say  how  many  millions  of 
dollars  he  has  thus  added,  nor  would  it  be  in 
the  reach  of  the  imagination  to  estimate  what 
the  world  is  yet  to  reap  from  his  sowing. 

145 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

And  yet,  in  the  midst  of  his  labor  for  the 
practical  good  of  the  race,  he  has  never  lost 
sight  of  that  more  exalted  resolve  to  leave 
the  world  a  far  more  beautiful  place  than  it 
was  when  he  entered  it. 


146 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  THORNLESS  EDIBLE  CACTUS 


problems  which  confront  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  in  his  work  are  many  and  some- 
times of  great  difficulty.  One  plant  may 
present  a  simple  nature  and  a  comparatively 
short  life  history.  Another  may  be  exceed- 
ingly complex  in  nature  and  of  great  age.  The 
first  he  finds  easy  of  manipulation,  the  second 
often  very  difficult.  The  plants  with  millions 
of  years  back  of  them,  which  may  be  traced  in 
the  very  rocks  themselves,  are  likely  to  prove 
stubborn,  to  persist  in  their  old  habits  ;  or,  if 
they  at  first  appear  to  yield,  to  return  to  these 
old  habits  at  a  later  day. 

He  has  found  this  particularly  true  of  the 
cactus,  in  the  changing  of  which  he  has 
accomplished  one  of  his  most  wonderful 
achievements.  For  years  he  had  had  the 
cactus  under  consideration.  It  had  long 
seemed  to  him  that  it  should  be  taken  out  of 
its  environment  and  set  forward  among  the 

147 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

helps  instead  of  the  hindrances  of  the  race. 
Sometimes  he  comes  instantly  to  a  conclusion, 
seeing  immediately  the  bearing  of  things  and 
setting  out  upon  a  certain  course  fortified  at 
all  points.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  regeneration 
of  the  cactus,  he  is  met  with  grave  problems 
which  demand  profound  study. 

When  he  turned  to  the  cactus  on  which  he 
was  to  spend  more  than  ten  years  of  study,  it 
was,  in  the  main,  a  stubborn,  irreconcilable 
foe  to  the  race ;  in  order  to  make  it  a  friend  of 
man  its  whole  nature  must  be  changed ;  it 
must  be  re-created.  To  the  average  man  it 
would  seem  a  waste  of  time  and  energy  to 
seek  to  improve  a  plant  which  for  millions 
of  years  had  been  hostile  to  the  race,  which 
seemed  to  have  absolutely  nothing  in  common 
with  civilization,  which  by  its  pariah -like 
nature  seemed  peculiarly  fitted  for  a  home 
upon  the  desert,  its  closest  comrades  the 
rattlesnake  and  the  scorpion,  its  highest  aim, 
apparently,  to  cause  the  death  of  some  thirst- 
maddened  animal  driven  to  eat  its  juicy  but 
deadly  leaves. 

But,  the  more  difficult  the  problem,  the 
keener  his  desire  to  solve  it.  He  knew  that 

148 


One  of  the  "Shasta"  daisies.    The  blossoms  are  from  four  to  six 
inches  in  diameter 


THE   THORNLESS   EDIBLE    CACTUS 

the  cactus,  even  in  its  wild  and  defiant  shape, 
had  certain  unquestioned  excellencies.  It 
was  undeniably  hardy;  it  would  grow  and 
thrive  where  nothing  else  would,  welcoming 
the  blistering  heat  of  the  desert  and  growing 
powerful  where  rain  seldom  falls.  It  had  much 
that  was  nutritious,  both  in  its  thick  thalli,  or 
leaves,  and  in  its  golden  or  crimson  fruit. 
Wherever  it  had  been  given  a  chance  away 
from  its  desert  home  and  under  more  favor- 
able conditions,  it  had  shown  phenomenal 
thrift.  It  was  not  one  of  those  plants  which 
will  not  bear  transplanting  from  a  wild  to  a 
civilized  state. 

Two  main  obstacles  had  first  to  be  removed 
— the  countless  thorns  upon  the  cactus,  cover- 
ing branch  and  leaves  and  fruit,  and  the 
spicules  of  the  leaves,  the  woody  fibrous  skele- 
tons of  the  thalli  which  made  them  more  or  less 
indigestible.  These  overcome,  there  remained 
the  development  of  the  fruit  and  the  fitting  of 
the  leaves  to  be  a  food,  food  even  for  man  as 
well  as  beast. 

All  this  he  has  accomplished, —  nothing 
more  marvelous  has  ever  been  done  in  plant 
life.  It  would  be  exceedingly  difficult  to  say 

149 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

which  one  of  Mr.  Burbank's  creations  is  the 
most  valuable  to  the  world  from  a  practical 
point  of  view,  which  one  adds  most  to  the 
wealth  of  nations.  But  probably  no  other 
creation  has  surpassed  this  one,  for  it  provides 
for  the  sustenance  of  the  race,  food  for  man 
and  food  for  beast;  it  utilizes  the  vast  desert 
areas  of  the  world  without  the  intervention 
of  irrigation,  though  irrigation  will  aid  here  as 
elsewhere ;  it  converts  enormous  reaches  of 
semi-arable  land  in  all  zones  to  profitable 
husbandry. 

It  had  long  been  known  that  there  were 
certain  kinds  of  cactus  growths  having  few, 
if  any,  thorns  and  certain  ones  the  fruit  of 
which  natives  of  some  countries  considered 
edible.  It  sometimes  happens  in  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  work  that  the  essential  thing  is  to  com- 
bine excellent  attributes  and  eliminate  bad 
ones,  rather  than  to  create  a  wholly  new  plant. 
And  so  it  was  in  the  case  of  the  cactus.  And 
yet,  in  one  sense,  the  cactus  he  has  produced 
is  absolutely  new,  because  no  other  cactus  has 
ever  combined  so  many  excellencies,  devoid  of 
obnoxious  elements, — he  has  bred  out  the  bad 
and  bred  in  the  good.  It  is  quite  like  the 

150 


THE   THORNLESS   EDIBLE   CACTUS 

touch  of  a  great  poet  who  finds  the  prosy 
story  of  a  Hamlet  or  a  Lear  and  leaves  it  a 
masterpiece. 

Out  of  some  twenty  genera  of  cacti,  recog- 
nized by  naturalists,  only  five  occur  in  the 
United  States,  but  these  are  among  the  most 
varied  of  all  in  their  species,  so  that  the  one 
thousand  known  varieties  of  cactus  are  nearly 
all  restricted  to  America.  It  is  upon  one  of 
these  five,  common  to  the  United  States,  the 
Opuntia,  that  Mr.  Burbank  has  worked  as  a 
basis.  It  is  of  the  variety  having  flat,  thick 
leaves,  though  sometimes  inclined  to  become 
cylindrical.  It  is  a  native  of  Mexico  and  South 
America.  In  their  natural  state  their  flowers 
are  very  striking,  some  of  them  red,  others 
purple,  others  yellow.  One  of  the  species  of 
the  Opuntia  is  cultivated  in  Mexico  as  a  host 
for  the  cochineal  insect.  The  insect  thrives 
upon  its  leaves,  is  killed  at  the  proper  time 
and  dried,  and  from  it  is  produced  the  brilliant 
carmine  color  so  useful  in  commerce.  The 
juice  of  the  fruit  is  sometimes  used  as  a 
water-color  for  painting  and  for  coloring  con- 
fectionery. Along  the  shores  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean are  several  species  of  the  Opuntia,  the 

151 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT  LIFE 

fruit  of  one  of  which  is  called  the  Indian  fig 
and  is  much  liked. 

One  of  the  Opuntias  is  hardy  even  in  Alaska 
and  in  other  similar  climates,  a  characteristic 
which  has  had  an  important  bearing  on  the 
work.  This  cactus  was  called  in,  also,  for  the 
scheme  laid  out  contemplated  not  only  a  cactus 
without  thorns  and  spicules  and  preeminently 
a  food,  but  one  which  should  be  adapted  to  the 
arctics  as  well  as  the  tropics,  one,  as  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  puts  it,  which  will  grow  anywhere  where 
man  can  live  from  the  soil.  Other  varieties 
were  also  chosen,  one  for  one  characteristic, 
one  for  another,  but  all  essential  in  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  ideal  plant. 

Seeds  were  secured  from  all  the  different 
varieties  needed  and  planted  by  the  thousands 
in  beds  specially  prepared.  The  plants  were 
in  rows  a  few  inches  apart,  from  two  to  ten 
thousand  plants  to  a  bed.  Extensive  crossings 
were  made  by  pollination  as  soon  as  the  blos- 
soms came,  this  being  followed  up  for  several 
seasons.  The  object  of  this  crossing,  or  hybri- 
dization, was  to  break  up  radically,  once  and 
forever,  the  habits  fastened  upon  the  plants 
for  perhaps  millions  of  years.  Seeds  from 

152 


THE   THORNLESS   EDIBLE   CACTUS 

these  new  plants  were  then  planted.  So  per- 
sistent is  the  cactus  in  its  habits  that  thou- 
sands of  new  seedlings  showed  no  tendency 
toward  improvement.  Indeed,  many  of  them, 
as  if  in  very  defiance  of  man,  bore  uglier 
thorns  than  any  of  their  ancestors.  Many  of 
them  were  a  mass  of  woody  fiber.  But  some 
very  few  showed  that  a  profound  change  was 
coming  over  their  lives.  This  was  indicated 
by  a  notable  lessening  of  the  spines,  thorns 
and  bristles.  All  such  plants  were  isolated  for 
further  crossing  and  selection.  Tests  were 
going  on  all  the  while,  also,  to  ascertain 
whether  or  not  any  plants  were  losing  their 
spicules.  Such  as  were  found  improving  in 
this  direction  were  also  isolated.  And  so  for 
every  excellence  desired  there  was  the  sharpest 
scrutiny,  and  also  for  every  bad  feature — it 
was  a  daily  battle  for  the  best.  At  last,  when 
ten  years  had  gone  by,  the  end  of  all  this 
preliminary  breeding  and  crossing  and  selecting 
came,  and  alongside  the  white  picket  fence 
which  surrounds  the  home  of  Mr.  Burbank 
rose  a  giant  cactus,  fully  eight  feet  in  height, 
bearing  thalli  or  leaves  from  ten  inches  to  a 
foot  in  length,  five  to  eight  inches  in  width, 

153 


NEW  CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

nearly  an  inch  in  thickness,  bearing  fruit  of 
large  size,  not  a  thorn  upon  it,  not  a  spicule  in 
all  its  rich  meat, — the  bitter  enemy  of  the 
desert  converted  into  an  abiding  friend  of 
man. 

In  creating  this  edible,  thornless  cactus  Mr. 
Burbank  took  into  account  a  thousand  and 
one  things  which  may  find  no  mention  here, 
but  one  of  them  which  may  be  noted  shows 
how  persistently  practical  is  all  his  work.  It 
takes  much  of  the  vital  forces  of  the  cactus  to 
make  its  powerfully  constructed  thorns  and  to 
supply  its  thalli  with  spicules.  In  breeding 
these  away  from  it  he  gives  to  Nature  the 
opportunity  to  devote  all  her  energies  to 
the  production  of  food  and  fruit,  and  this  will 
have  a  most  important  bearing  upon  the 
future ;  he  has  not  only  transformed  the 
cactus  as  to  its  product  but  has,  in  removing 
these  thorns  and  spicules,  provided  a  means 
for  vastly  increasing  this  product. 

The  fruit  of  the  new  cactus  is  in  shape  quite 
like  a  fat  cucumber  slightly  flattened  at  both 
ends.  It  is  about  two  and  one-quarter  inches 
in  diameter  by  three  and  a  half  inches  long. 
Sometimes  it  is  a  beautiful  yellow  in  color, 

154 


THE   THORNLESS   EDIBLE   CACTUS 

while  in  the  fruit  from  another  plant  the  flesh 
is  crimson.  It  is  delicious  to  the  taste.  To 
some  it  has  the  flavor  of  a  peach,  to  some  a 
melon,  to  some  the  suggestion  of  a  pineapple, 
to  some  a  blackberry — to  every  one  who  tastes 
it  a  different  flavor  from  anything  before 
eaten.  Tt  is,  indeed,  a  new  taste  for  the  palate 
of  the  world.  It  may  be  eaten  fresh  or  cooked, 
or  it  may  be  preserved.  The  thalli,  too,  have  a 
peculiarly  attractive  flavor  when  cooked  and 
may  be  eaten  in  a  variety  of  ways,  or  they 
may  be  put  up  as  ginger  or  melon  rinds  are 
preserved.  As  a  food  for  cattle  the  thalli  are 
peculiarly  rich,  at  least  one  half  as  nutritious 
as  alfalfa,  and  they  will  produce  the  finest 
beef,  mutton  and  pork. 

It  is  quite  significant,  it  may  be  said  in 
passing,  that  at  a  time  when  industrious 
explorers  of  the  United  States  Government 
were  scouring  the  desert  places  of  the  earth 
in  search  of  a  thornless  cactus  which  they 
thought  might  be  introduced  into  the  arid 
regions  of  America,  finding  at  last  in  Algeria 
a  prickly  pear  almost  spineless,  Mr.  Burbank 
had  been  for  years  cultivating  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  cacti  upon  his  proving  grounds, 

155 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

thousands  of  them  at  that  very  time  practically 
thornless  and  spiculess,  and  all  marching 
forward  under  his  direction  to  produce  a 
cactus  which  should  not  only  have  none  of 
these  undesirable  things  but  which  should 
have  many  others  of  distinct  value  to  man. 

An  indication  of  the  wonderful  growing 
powers  of  the  new  cactus  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  in  three  years'  time  a  single  plant  from 
seed  produces  six  hundred  pounds  of  food. 

Another,  and  most  important,  feature  of  the 
new  cactus  is  that  it  has  begun  to  breed  true 
to  type,  from  the  seed,  while  it,  however, 
invariably  persists  from  cuttings  of  the  leaves. 
The  cactus,  as  well  as  all  other  plants, 
stubborn  or  pliable,  persists  when  once  it  has 
been  definitely  fixed  in  its  new  ways.  Just  as 
the  cactus  through  all  the  ages  has  persisted  in 
bearing  thorns  and  persisted  in  filling  its  thalli 
with  spicules,  just  so  it  will  persist  in  getting 
along  without  them  when  once  it  has  been 
fully  broken  of  the  habit  of  bearing  them.  So 
the  new  cactus  begins  a  new  era  in  its  family, 
an  era  of  unexampled  prosperity,  and  the  era 
of  good  will  and  not  enmity  to  man. 

The  possibilities  of  the  new  cactus  have  an 

156 


Fluted  daisies,  one  of  the  many  curious  forms  developed  in  the 
production  of  the  Shasta  daisies 


THE   THORNLESS   EDIBLE    CACTUS 

enormous  scope.  The  desert  land  on  the  globe 
is  estimated  to  be  two  billion,  seven  hundred 
millions  of  acres,  an  area  six  thousand  square 
miles  larger  than  the  area  of  the  United  States 
inclusive  of  its  insular  possessions.  All  this 
save,  perhaps,  in  some  case  where  absolutely 
no  rain  falls,  may  be  reclaimed  for  food  for 
man  and  beast  if  needs  be.  The  regions  known 
as  steppes,  much  of  which  is  semi-arable,  is 
estimated  at  nearly  nine  billions  of  square 
miles  additional,  practically  all  of  which  may 
be  utilized  for  the  new  cactus.  The  fertile 
regions  of  the  globe  are  considerably  larger 
than  both  these  regions,  some  twenty-nine 
millions  of  square  miles,  over  sixteen  billions 
of  acres.  On  every  foot  of  fertile  soil  the 
cactus  will  grow  with  still  greater  rapidity 
than  in  the  desert,  for  it  takes  on  a  new  and 
powerful  impulse  under  cultivation. 

These  figures  give  something  of  the  possi- 
bilities. In  Mr.  Burbank's  own  words: 

"The  population  of  the  globe  may  be 
doubled  and  yet,  in  the  immediate  food  of  the 
cactus  plant  itself  and  in  the  food  animals 
which  may  be  raised  upon  it,  there  would  still 
be  enough  for  all." 

157 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

The  new  cactus  will  not  be  raised  to  sell. 
It  is  not  at  this  time  fully  ready,  for  while  the 
main  end  has  been  reached,  other  work  in  it 
must  be  done  before  it  begins  its  career.  As 
soon  as  it  is  finished,  any  man  with  a  few  feet 
of  earth  in  the  corner  of  some  city  back  yard, 
any  man  with  a  garden  in  the  country,  any 
man  with  acres  which  have  lost  their  fertility 
or  with  large  areas  on  mountain  or  desert 
which  have  been  long  abandoned,  may  be- 
come a  sharer  in  the  fruits  of  this  act.  For 
here,  as  in  all  that  he  has  ever  done,  the 
supreme  purpose  of  his  life  looms  up,  colossal 
in  its  contrast  with  the  mean  selfishness  of 
man :  He  has  done  all  for  the  advancement  of 
the  race. 

This  fearsome  dreaded  foe  of  the  race  has 
been  conquered,  the  times  of  little  rain  are 
set  at  naught,  the  great  flame -hearted  sun 
itself,  burning  its  mighty  way  across  the 
blistering  desert  is  defied,  the  whole  desert 
and  arable  regions  of  the  globe  by  the  act  of 
one  man  may  become  a  limitless  reservoir  of 
food. 


158 


CHAPTER  X 

CERTAIN  GENERAL  FEATURES 

TN  a  study  of  Mr.  Burbank's  great  work  one 
-•-  is  not  less  amazed  at  its  extent  than  baffled 
by  its  variety.  His  approach  to  Nature  lies 
through  many  avenues; — it  is  a  source  of 
never-ending  surprise  to  see  how  completely 
he  commands  these  avenues  while  steadily 
opening  others. 

In  this  chapter  it  is  proposed  to  touch  upon 
some  of  the  many  experiments  which  may  not 
be  incorporated  in  this  volume  as  individual 
chapters  because  of  the  limitations  of  space, 
though  in  them  may  be  found  ample  material 
for  such  chapters. 

Roses  have  long  held  high  favor  with  Mr. 
Burbank,  both  because  of  his  love  for  the 
flower  itself  and  because  of  its  possibilities  in 
the  way  of  increase  in  size,  enrichment  of 
color  and  odor,  and  in  the  adaptation  of 
certain  roses,  highly  prized  but  confined  to  a 
restricted  zone  of  cultivation,  so  that  they 

159 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

may  be  elsewhere  enjoyed.  Some  years  ago 
he  developed  a  rose  primarily  for  bedding 
purposes,  purchased  by  an  eastern  florist  and 
by  him  put  upon  the  market,  the  Burbank 
rose.  It  seemed  to  catch  something  of  the 
tremendous  energy  and  enthusiasm  of  its 
creator,  for  it  soon  made  itself  felt  as  the  freest 
flowering  rose  in  cultivation.  It  begins  to 
blossom  when  it  is  not  more  than  three  inches 
in  height  and,  if  the  climate  will  permit,  it 
keeps  on  blossoming  the  entire  year.  In  colder 
climates  it  goes  into  winter  quarters  unafraid, 
and  hastens  out  of  its  long  sleep  at  the  very 
earliest  call  of  spring.  It  is  a  double  rose,  a 
deep  rose-pink  in  color,  beautifully  shaded 
from  the  center  and  nearly  three  inches  in 
diameter.  In  colder  climates,  when  October 
days  come  the  outer  petals  take  on  a  carmine 
hue.  The  plants  develop  into  symmetrical 
bushes,  adding  to  their  attractiveness. 

This  rose  ran  the  gauntlet  of  the  World's 
Fair  in  St.  Louis,  in  1904,  and  won  the  gold 
medal  over  all  competitors  as  the  best 
bedding  rose  in  the  world.  It  is  only  one  of 
many  superb  varieties  of  roses  which  Mr. 
Burbank  has  made. 

160 


CERTAIN  GENERAL  FEATURES 

Mr.  Burbank  was  attracted  by  a  wild  ever- 
lasting flower  which  produces  a  rather  inferior 
blossom  in  its  Australian  home,  but  which 
promised  to  develop  into  something  far  more 
attractive.  Following  the  usual  course  of 
selection,  he  chose  from  among  its  plants  those 
bearing  the  choicest  blossoms,  saved  the  seeds 
from  these  plants,  and  thus  by  constantly 
choosing  those  plants  that  approached  the 
model  in  his  mind,  carried  the  flower  forward 
through  successive  generations  to  a  larger  and 
far  more  beautiful  state.  The  color  of  the 
blossoms,  a  delicate  pink,  was  intensified  and 
the  blossom  itself  doubled  in  size. 

There  are  numerous  "everlasting"  flowers, 
more  or  less  attractive  to  the  eye,  and  to  add 
a  new  flower  to  their  list  would  not  have  been 
so  extraordinary  a  thing,  but  the  development 
of  the  Australian  flower  had  a  wholly  distinc- 
tive purpose,  the  production  of  a  flower  for 
use  in  the  manufacture  of  millinery  goods  and 
for  use  in  allied  decorative  lines.  Thus  the 
new  flower  becomes  commercially  important, 
promising  very  largely  to  displace  artificial 
flowers  of  wire,  paint  and  cloth  for  the  adorn- 
ment of  women's  hats.  The  flower  is  not  only 

161 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN    PLANT   LIFE 

beautiful  in  form  and  color  and  everlasting, 
but  it  is  fadeless  and  will  not  be  injured  by 
handling.  One  of  the  largest  millinery  manu- 
facturing firms  in  the  world  purchased  the 
flower.  Mr.  Burbank  makes  note  of  the  fact 
that  there  are  other  flowers  of  this  kind  sus- 
ceptible of  like  improvement. 

Fifteen  years  ago  Mr.  Burbank,  taking  into 
account  the  fact  that  the  quince  can  be  grown 
with  probably  less  expense  than  any  other 
fruit  and  that  it  had  never  occupied  the  place 
which  he  thought  it  should  occupy,  set  about 
its  improvement.  It  is  said  that  some  of  the 
choicest  so-called  quince  jellies  on  the  market 
have  been  made  from  the  refuse  of  apples, 
pears  and  other  fruits  brought  up  to  the  imita- 
tion of  the  quince  flavor  by  judicious  doctor- 
ing. The  quince  itself  had  long  been  neg- 
lected by  fruit-raisers,  and,  at  its  best,  was 
an  inferior  fruit  compared  with  other  fruits. 

The  "pineapple"  quince  was  the  outcome  of 
all  the  years  of  work  upon  this  fruit,  a  quince 
which,  as  Mr.  Burbank  says,  "will  cook  as 
tender  in  five  minutes  as  the  best  of  cooking 
apples  and  with  a  quince  flavor  not  before 
equaled.  Jelly  made  from  it  is  pronounced 


CERTAIN  GENERAL  FEATURES 

by  some  superior  to  that  made  from  any  other 
fruit.  The  fruit  in  form  and  size  very 
much  resembles  the  Orange  quince  but  is 
smoother  and  more  globular;  in  color  much 
lighter  yellow,  with  an  average  weight  of 
about  three-quarters  of  a  pound  each."  Still 
other  varieties  are  under  way  which  promise 
to  far  surpass  even  the  pineapple  quince. 

For  many  years  Mr.  Burbank  has  carried  on 
extensive  tests  in  berries  of  different  kinds. 
Many  tests  are  still  under  way  at  Sebastopol. 
One  of  the  most  important  features  of  this 
line  of  work  is  the  ultimate  removal  of  the 
thorns  from  all  thorn-bearing  berries,  and 
from  roses  as  well.  Mr.  Burbank  asked  me 
one  day,  as  we  were  walking  through  the 
proving  grounds' at  Sebastopol,  to  bend  over  a 
blackberry  bush  growing  rather  close  to  the 
ground,  and  rub  its  stem  against  my  face.  It 
certainly  was  a  novel  experience — the  thorns 
had  been  entirely  bred  away  from  the  plant. 
So  will  it  be  with  all  thorn-bearing  fruits  if  he 
shall  find  time  to  transform  them,  for,  as  in 
this  particular  instance,  all  that  is  essential  is 
that  a  systematic  and  patient  course  of  selec- 
tion be  followed. 

163 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

One  of  the  rarest  of  all  the  fruits  which 
have  come  from  Mr.  Burbank's  hand  is  the 
white  blackberry,  the  union  of  a  small  light- 
colored  wild  berry,  of  little  if  any  impor- 
tance, and  a  Lawton  blackberry.  The  union 
gave  to  the  new  plant  great  vigor  and  large 
size  to  the  berry,  the  berry,  at  the  same 
time,  losing  the  dark  purplish  black  of  its 
larger  ancestor  and  appearing  a  clear,  beauti- 
ful white.  The  fruit  is  not  only  fair  to  look 
upon,  but  delightful  to  the  taste.  Some  idea 
of  the  vastness  of  the  work  even  in  the  pro- 
duction of  berries  is  shown  in  the  fact  that 
in  producing  the  white  blackberry  sixty-five 
thousand  hybrid  bushes  which  did  not  come 
up  to  the  standard  set  for  them  were  de- 
stroyed at  one  time.  One  plant  out  of  sixty- 
five  thousand,  but  the  one  successful  plant 
paid  for  all  the  time,  the  trouble,  and  the 
infinite  patience  which  had  been  expended. 
He  is  still  working  upon  the  white  black- 
berry in  order  to  give  it  still  finer  flavor 
and  to  increase  its  productiveness. 

In  the  crossing  of  the  various  berries,  no- 
tably the  blackberry  and  the  raspberry,  re- 
markable variations  in  both  stalk  and  leaf 

164 


CERTAIN  GENERAL  FEATURES 

were  seen.  The  stalks  varied  greatly  in  color, 
also,  some  of  them  white,  some  red,  some 
dark  purple,  some  bronze,  some  yellow,  some 
of  them  brown  or  green  or  black.  The 
leaves  were  remarkably  interesting  in  their 
wonderful  diversity.  Literally  scores  of 
leaves,  all  different  in  shape  and  size,  grew 
from  the  seed  of  one  hybrid  blackberry 
plant. 

A  few  seeds  were  secured  for  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  by  one  of  his  collectors  from  a  black- 
berry growing  in  the  Himalaya  Mountains. 
The  plants  which  came  from  the  seeds  were 
selected  through  a  series  of  years  with  the 
end  in  view  of  encouraging  and  still  further 
developing  the  rapidity  of  growth  which  was 
said  to  characterize  the  foreign  berry.  At 
last  a  single  plant,  a  young  plant  at  that, 
was  developed  which  covered  one  hundred 
and  fifty  square  feet  of  ground,  stood  eight 
feet  in  height,  and  bore  over  a  bushel  of 
fruit. 

I  saw  growing  on  Mr.  Burbank's  grounds 
at  Santa  Rosa  a  row  of  plants  apparently 
but  lately  out  of  the  ground,  possibly  an 
inch  in  height.  The  row  was  about  six  feet 

165 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

long,  a  clearly  defined  green  line  on  the  dark 
earth.  A  foot  or  so  from  the  tiny  plants 
was  another  row  double  in  size.  Alongside 
of  this  were  other  rows,  larger  and  thriftier 
of  growth  than  the  preceding  one.  At  the 
end  of  the  plat  which  embraced  the  test, 
was  a  heavy  row  of  rich  dark  grass,  broad 
of  leaf,  dense  of  growth,  the  leaves  being 
from  ten  to  twelve  inches  long.  The  plants 
had  a  remarkably  brilliant  green  color  and 
were  the  picture  of  vegetable  health.  The 
experiment  was  in  grasses,  a  line  of  work 
Mr.  Burbank  has  begun  with  the  promise  of 
important  results.  Indeed,  he  once  carried  on 
a  series  of  grass  tests,  developing  a  number 
of  rare  grasses  remarkable  both  for  rapidity 
of  growth  and  variety  of  color,  but  was 
obliged  to  discontinue  the  tests  at  the  time. 
In  these  tests  the  possibility  of  development 
in  grasses  was  clearly  proven. 

In  the  experiment  noted  above,  the  tiny 
inch-high  grass  was  of  the  same  variety  as 
the  largest  plant  in  the  test.  While  it  had 
been  growing  its  inch  the  other  had  been 
growing  twelve  inches,  the  surface  of  the 
one  plant  being  fully  five  hundred  times  as 

166 


CERTAIN  GENERAL  FEATURES 

great  as  that  of  the  companion  of  the  same 
lot  of  seed.  The  difference  between  the  two 
was  that  one  was  a  slow-growing,  the  other 
a  rapid-growing  seedling.  As  in  all  manner 
of  fruit  tree  and  other  tree  tests  the  seed- 
lings vary  greatly  in  the  rapidity  of  their 
growth,  so  in  the  grasses,  —  the  test  under 
way  was  to  determine  which  one  of  these 
seedlings  was  the  fastest  growing  and  most 
vigorous;  from  that  final  selection  would 
be  made  in  the  development  of  a  better  type 
of  grass.  Mr.  Burbank  has  been  studying 
for  a  long  time  the  question  of  providing  a 
rich,  nutritious  grass  for  barren  regions.  It 
is  on  this  line  he  has  been  at  work,  as  well 
as  upon  the  production  of  lawn  grasses 
which  will  grow  much  more  compact  and  get 
along  with  less  water  than  the  old  types  of 
grass.  The  tests  in  grasses  promise  to  be  of 
exceptional  interest  and  value. 

Mr.  Burbank  also  recognizes  a  large  field 
of  operations  in  the  improvement  of  native 
wild  grasses,  and  even  in  the  ennoblement 
of  the  weeds  themselves.  Upon  this  point 
he  says: 

"What  occupation  can  be  more  delightful 

167 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

than  adopting  the  most  promising  individual 
from  among  a  race  of  vile,  neglected  or- 
phan weeds  with  settled,  hoodlum  tenden- 
cies, down-trodden  and  despised  by  all,  and 
gradually  lifting  it  by  breeding  and  educa- 
tion to  a  higher  sphere;  to  see  it  gradually 
change  its  sprawling  habits,  its  coarse,  ill- 
smelling  foliage,  its  insignificant  blossoms  of 
dull  color,  to  an  upright  plant  with  hand- 
some, glossy,  fragrant  leaves,  blossoms  of 
every  hue,  and  with  a  fragrance  as  pure  and 
lasting  as  could  be  desired? 

"In  the  more  profound  study  of  the  life 
of  plants,  both  domestic  and  wild,  we  are 
surprised  to  see  how  much  they  are  like 
children.  Study  their  wants,  help  them  to 
what  they  need,  be  endlessly  patient,  be 
honest  with  them,  carefully  correcting  each 
fault  as  it  appears,  and  in  due  time  they  will 
reward  you  bountifully  for  every  care  and 
attention,  and  make  your  heart  glad  in  ob- 
serving the  results  of  your  work.  Weeds  are 
weeds  because  they  are  jostled,  crowded, 
cropped  and  trampled  upon,  scorched  by 
fierce  heat,  starved  or  perhaps  suffering  with 
cold,  wet  feet,  tormented  by  insect  pests  or 

168 


CERTAIN  GENERAL  FEATURES 

lack  of  nourishing  food  and  sunshine.  Most 
of  them  have  opportunity  for  blossoming 
out  in  luxurious  beauty  and  abundance.  A 
few  are  so  fixed  in  their  habits  that  it  is 
better  to  select  an  individual  for  adoption 
and  improvement  from  a  race  which  is  more 
pliable.  This  stability  of  character  cannot 
often  be  known  except  by  careful  trial,  there- 
fore members  from  several  races  at  the  same 
time  may  be  selected  with  advantage;  the 
most  pliable  and  easily  educated  one  will 
soon  make  the  fact  manifest  by  showing  a 
tendency  to  'break'  or  vary  slightly  or  per- 
haps profoundly  from  the  wild  state.  Any 
variation  should  be  at  once  seized  upon  and 
numerous  seedlings  raised  from  this  individ- 
ual. In  the  next  generation  one,  or  several, 
even  more  marked  variations  will  be  almost 
certain  to  appear;  for,  when  a  plant  once 
wakes  up  to  the  new  influences  brought  to 
bear  upon  it,  the  road  is  opened  for  endless 
improvement  in  all  directions,  and  the  ope- 
rator finds  himself  with  a  wealth  of  new  forms 
which  is  almost  as  discouraging  to  select 
from  as,  in  the  first  place,  it  was  to  induce 
the  plant  to  vary  in  the  least, — now  comes 

169 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

the  'point  where  the  skill  of  the  operator  is 
put  to  the  severest  test.  When  a  wild  plant 
has  been  induced  to  change  its  old  habits, 
fixed  by  ages  of  uniform  environment,  it 
needs  some  one  with  a  steady  hand  to 
guide  it  into  a  condition  of  refinement  and 
beauty  sufficient  to  adorn  any  occasion." 

One  of  the  rarest  flowers  Mr.  Burbank 
has  ever  produced  met  a  tragic  fate.  It 
was  a  most  beautiful  and  delicately  tinted 
flower  upon  a  vine  of  exquisite  greenness, 
a  vine  which  would  be  suited  admirably  for 
interior  decoration  or  for  use  in  masses 
upon  lawns.  It  was  a  hybrid  mesembryan- 
themum,  a  plant  whose  habit  is  to  open  its 
beautiful  flowers  in  the  sunshine  but  to  close 
them  when  the  dark  weather  comes  on.  The 
hybrid,  while  like  its  ancestors  in  some  general 
characters,  was  still  unique  among  flowers, 
and  Mr.  Burbank  set  great  store  by  it.  One 
morning  a  workman  in  the  part  of  the 
grounds  where  the  flower  was  growing  dis- 
covered that  every  plant,  wherever  it  was 
located  —  some  being  in  one  part  of  the 
grounds,  some  in  another  —  had  met  simul- 
taneous death  at  the  hands  of  some  mys- 

170 


CERTAIN  GENERAL  FEATURES 

terious  enemy,  or  from  some  sudden  and 
fatal  plant  illness;  but  not  a  clue  had  been 
left  as  to  the  author  of  the  disaster.  The 
plant  could  never  be  reproduced  and  the 
loss  was  a  very  heavy  one. 

Many  times,  however,  in  the  midst  of 
the  tests,  the  foes  of  the  insect  and  animal 
world  make  open  war  upon  the  plants,  and 
it  would  seem  sometimes  as  if  with  malice 
aforethought.  Some  particularly  valuable 
gladioli  were  surrounded  by  a  row  of  ordi- 
nary gladioli  in  order  to  tempt  the  thieving 
gophers,  should  they  appear,  to  satisfy  them- 
selves with  the  coarser  bulbs  and  thus  pre- 
serve the  choice  ones.  The  gophers,  how- 
ever, were  not  to  be  put  off  in  any  such 
manner,  but  passed  by  the  common  bulbs 
and  destroyed  the  rare  ones,  entailing  a 
severe  loss.  Mr.  Burbank  showed  me  one  day 
a  large  bed  of  seedling  roses.  In  one  end 
was  a  heavy  growth  of  young  plants,  in 
the  other  a  space  several  feet  square  in 
which  there  were  not  over  a  half  dozen  tiny 
little  plants  just  peeping  up  through  the 
soil.  The  plants  which  had  been  spared  by 
the  birds  that  had  swooped  down  upon  the 

171 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

plot  in  an  unguarded  moment  were  not 
specially  valuable,  but  the  ones  which  the 
birds  had  selected  were  very  rare  and  the 
test  was  all  but  defeated.  So  was  it  with 
a  new  generation  of  beautiful  hybrid  lark- 
spurs upon  which  he  had  been  working  for 
a  number  of  years.  The  plants  were  in 
beds  which  have  wire  screens  to  protect 
them  from  the  birds,  but  a  workman  had 
thoughtlessly  left  the  screen  off  and  the 
birds  in  a  few  moments  wrought  havoc  with 
the  plants  that  were  more  than  worth,  as 
Mr.  Burbank  put  it,  their  weight  in  dia- 
monds. 

There  is  a  constant  battle  going  on  against 
these  foes  of  the  plants. 


172 


CHAPTER    XI 

BREEDING  FOR  PERFUME 

WHEN  one  has  come  to  some  apprecia- 
tion of  the  wide  extent  of  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  life-work  among  the  plants  of  the 
world,  it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  the  flowers 
gathered  in  delicate  array  to  make  known 
their  individual  needs,  praying  for  aid  at  the 
hands  of  one  who  has  never  refused  them 
service. 

One  has  length  and  strength  of  stem  but 
meagerness  of  blossom,  it  is  longing  for  more 
beautiful  flowers; — an  answer  to  its  prayer 
comes  in  the  passing  of  the  years  and  it  grows 
on  and  on  until  it  bears  a  rare,  fragrant 
coronal.  One  has  never  been  able  to  hold  up 
its  head  in  the  presence  of  its  fellows,  bearing 
its  blossoms  on  a  single  side  of  its  stem,  a  sad, 
top-heavy  state; — cannot  help  be  given?  As 
swiftly  as  may  be  the  gift  of  grace  follows, 
and  now  its  blossoms  surround  its  stem  in 
radiant  beauty.  Another  has  never  liked  its 

173 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LITE 

color;  it  would  be  red  where  all  the  centuries 
it  has  been  golden ;  a  strange  little  wild  beauty 
would  change  from  the  royal  purple  of  a  king 
to  the  color  of  the  snows  upon  the  mountains ; 
—and  they  are  transformed  as  by  a  miracle. 
A  host  presses  forward  from  all  the  ends  of 
the  earth  ; — they  are  wild,  would  that  they 
might  become  tame!  And  lo!  they  are 
changed;  they  join  the  fair  company  of  the 
gardens  of  the  world  whose  part  it  is  to 
furnish  adornment  to  those  still  more  fair  or 
to  carry  their  fragrance  to  the  beds  of  those 
who  lie  in  pain. 

And  so  it  goes  among  many  hundreds  of 
them,  each  needing  something, — beauty,  or 
strength,  or  hardiness,  or  length  of  days, — and 
the  prayer  of  all  is  granted. 

Ah!  but  there  still  remains  one  unsatisfied: 
its  longing  is  the  most  intense  of  all.  It  has 
all  that  the  others  have  longed  for,  but  it  has 
one  sad  impairment.  It  has  been  doomed 
through  the  centuries  to  bear  a  most  wretched 
odor,  an  offense  to  its  fellows,  to  the  world; — 
if  it  only  could  be  given  some  sweet  scent  like 
its  dear  neighbors! 

This    is  the   hardest    request    of  all.     The 

174 


The  cactus  in  the  foreground   is  the  ordinary  thorny  kind.     Those 
in  the  rear  are  the  thornless  ones  of  the  same  species 


BREEDING   FOR   PERFUME 

flower  has  made  the  greatest  demand  upon  the 
skill  and  the  resources  and  the  commanding 
genius  of  the  friend  of  all  flowers. 

But  even  this  is  granted:  a  new  epoch  in 
the  life  of  the  flowers  of  the  earth  has  come: 
they  need  remain  scentless  no  longer. 

For  twenty-five  years  Mr.  Burbank  had 
been  studying  the  dahlia  before  he  found  a 
way  of  answering  its  prayer  for  relief  from  its 
offensive  odor;  now  it  is  to  be  freed  from  its 
burden.  He  has  driven  out  the  disagreeable 
odor  and,  in  its  place,  he  has  left  the  fragrance 
of  the  magnolia. 

The  dahlia  is  a  fascinating  flower  with 
wrhich  to  work.  Year  by  year  as  he  studied  it 
and  progressed  in  its  development,  making  it 
more  beautiful,  hardier,  more  interesting  in 
shape  of  blossom,  he  brought  new  varieties 
into  service  from  other  lands  to  make  use  of  in 
combination  with  his  own.  One  of  these  was 
originally  from  Mexico,  Dahlia  Juarezi,  the 
parent  of  the  dahlia  now  commonly  called  the 
cactus  dahlia,  with  petals  more  on  the  order  of 
the  chrysanthemum. 

From  the  imported  varieties  he  has  worked 
on  with  the  types  of  his  own  creation,  all  the 

175 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

time  building  up  more  beautiful  forms.  It  is 
interesting  to  note,  in  passing,  that  while  the 
dahlia  seeds  which  he  has  sent  out  to  leading 
amateur  gardeners  in  various  parts  of  the 
world  are  the  ones  which  he  has  discarded  as 
not  valuable  enough  to  use  in  carrying  forward 
his  experiments, — reserving,  of  necessity,  the 
very  best  ones  for  the  work  in  hand, — yet  he 
has  received  enthusiastic  letters  from  those 
who  have  grown  flowers  from  these  discarded 
seeds,  reciting  the  triumphs  won  in  prizes  and 
premiums  at  flower  shows  and  county  fairs. 

The  dahlia,  like  many  another  flower,  when 
first  broken  of  an  old  habit  of  life  and  led  into 
a  new  one,  finds  it  sometimes  hard  to  persist 
in  the  new  way.  Everything  is  strange.  It  is 
called  upon  to  do  things  it  never  was  called 
upon  to  do  before.  A  million  past  tendencies 
are  at  work  to  keep  it  in  the  old  paths.  So, 
when  any  new  and  particularly  desirable  trait 
is  developed,  it  is  often  hard  to  fix  it.  And  in 
the  fixing  of  this  trait  a  thousand  things  must 
be  taken  into  account, — incidents  in  its  life 
history,  peculiarities  of  environment,  methods 
of  growth  and  development,  individual  char- 
acteristics. 

176 


BREEDING   FOR   PERFUME 

"To  keep  track  of  the  details  of  a  plant's 
life  under  change  from  an  old  order  of  things," 
says  Mr.  Burbank,  "and  to  bear  in  mind  all 
that  must  be  remembered  and  considered  as 
to  its  life  history, —  beside  this,  the  classifica- 
tion of  the  botanists  is  child's  play." 

When  the  flower  which  has  been  changed 
in  form  or  color  has  been  watched  through  a 
series  of  years  and  shows  no  sign  of  return  to 
its  old  ways,  then  it  may  be  left  to  itself 
to  follow  out  the  new  order  of  its  changed  life. 
It  certainly  took  a  long  while  to  make  the 
dahlia  double,  for  example,  but  this  is  now  a 
fixed  characteristic  and  there  is  no  reversion 
to  the  old  order. 

It  so  happened  one  day,  several  years  ago, 
that  Mr.  Burbank,  while  in  the  dahlia  proving- 
plots,  suddenly  noticed  one  flower  which  bore 
none  of  the  disagreeable  odor  characteristic  of 
this  plant,  but,  in  its  place,  a  faint  fragrance, 
elusive,  but  undeniably  sweet.  Instantly  the 
flower  was  isolated,  and  with  the  most  jealous 
care  its  seeds  were  saved  and  planted. 

A  problem  of  immense  difficulty  was  before 
him,  for  of  all  the  qualities  of  a  plant  the  most 
elusive,  the  least  understandable,  the  most 

177 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

i/ 
intangible,   the   most    difficult  to   get   under 

v  control,  is  that  of  odor.  A  thousand  and  one 
things  interfere  to  make  the  problem  more 
difficult.  The  color  of  the  flowers,  the  shape 
of  leaves  and  petals  and  stem,  these  are  before 
the  eyes  and  changes  in  them  may  be  watched 
and  recorded  from  generation  to  generation,— 
but  the  perfume,  no  instrument  of  man  can 
'  measure  or  record  it :  it  is  the  very  soul  of  the 
flower. 

Nevertheless,  the  more  difficult  the  problem 
the  greater  his  zest  for  entering  upon  it,  the 
deeper  his  delight  in  the  final  solution. 

New  plants  raised  from  the  seeds  of  this 
scented  dahlia  showed  a  variety  of  answers  to 
the  problem.  Some  had  scarcely,  if  any,  odor, 
and  that  not  pleasant;  some  persisted  in  the 
full  measure  of  the  old  disagreeable  trait;  a 
very  few  had  some  hint  of  the  perfume  of 
the  rich  magnolia  blossom.  All  but  the  latter 
were  at  once  put  to  death  as  unworthy  to  live 
in  the  test  to  follow. 

Again  the  seeds  were  planted  and  again  the 
plants  were  rigidly  selected ;  and  so  it  went  on 
through  generations  until,  one  day,  there  came 
forth  a  plant  with  the  full,  sweet  fragrance  of 

178 


BREEDING   FOR   PERFUME 

the  magnolia  while  still  retaining  all  its  other 
good  qualities;  and  then  he  knew  that  the 
battle  was  won.  It  might  be  long  until  the 
perfumed  dahlia  was  fully  fixed,  and  longer 
yet  to  introduce  the  new  flower  to  the  world, 
but  the  chief  object  had  been  reached, — the 
offensive  odor  had  been  driven  out  and  in  its 
place  had  been  established  a  rare  and  lasting 
perfume:  it  was  the  working  of  a  modern 
miracle. 

"  It  is  not  so  difficult,"  Mr.  Burbank  says  of 
the  new  scented  dahlia,  "to  teach  a  plant  to 
transmit  other  characteristics,  and,  once  its 
new  traits  have  been  fixed,  it  has  no  difficulty 
in  keeping  on  in  the  new  way.  When  the 
dahlia  once  learned  to  be  double,  for  example, 
and  had  had  a  term  of  years  in  which  to  fix 
itself  in  this  new  form,  it  was  easy  enough  to 
go  onward  in  the  same  way.  But  it  was  a  new 
thing  for  the  dahlia  to  change  its  odor,  it  took 
a  long  time  for  it  to  get  used  to  it.  All  its  life 
habits  through  thousands  of  generations  had 
to  be  broken  up.  It  was  its  lifelong  habit  to 
bear  a  disagreeable  odor.  It  was  no  ordinary 
thing  in  its  life  to  make  the  change;  it  could 
not  easily  give  up  its  old  ways.  At  first,  prob- 

179 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

ably  not  one  out  of  a  thousand  seeds  produced 
a  flower  with  any  fragrance.  It  is  far  easier 
for  a  flower  to  rebel  and  throw  off  a  new  per- 
fume  than  it  is  for  it  to  discard  some  other 
characteristic  which  it  has  been  led  to  adopt." 

Now  that  the  solution  of  the  problem  has 
been  reached,  it  is  only  the  question  of  the 
necessary  time  for  the  conversion  of  the  entire 
dahlia  family  to  fragrance. 

To  change  an  ill  odor  into  a  delightful  one 
is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  achievements  in  breeding  for  perfume, 
but  to  give  a  flower  fragrance  where  none 
before  existed,  this  is  a  still  more  difficult  task. 

For  years  he  has  been  at  work  perfecting  a 
heretofore  scentless  verbena,  increasing  it  in 
size  and  beauty  of  blossoms  and  giving  it  a 
more  commanding  place  among  the  flowers  of 
the  world.  In  the  evening  of  a  summer  day, 
while  he  was  walking  in  the  plots  set  apart  for 
the  testing  of  the  verbenas,  a  faint  odor  came 
up  to  him  on  the  soft  night  air.  It  was  so 
curious  a  thing,  coming  from  a  bed  of  flowers 
before  bearing  no  fragrance,  that  he  instantly 
began  a  search  in  the  bed  for  the  plant  whose 
blossom  had  shown  this  strange  scent. 

180 


BREEDING   FOR   PERFUME 

The  search  was  unavailing,  however,  and  a 
year  passed  by.  Again,  in  the  dusk  of  just  such 
an  evening,  he  happened  to  be  near  the  ver- 
benas, and  again  the  ghost  of  an  odor  came 
upward.  This  time  he  was  not  to  be  denied, 
and  he  did  not  leave  the  task  until  he  had 
crept  on  hands  and  knees  through  the  verbena 
beds,  discovering,  at  last,  the  plant  with  the 
subtle  fragrance,  the  faint  sweet  suggestion  of 
the  trailing  arbutus,  when  it  comes  up  in  fair, 
pink  beauty  through  the  white  snows  of  the 
North. 

The  plant  was  at  once  isolated  and  then 
began  a  rigid  selection  of  plants  from  its  seeds, 
following  the  same  process  observed  in  the 
dahlia.  Year  by  year  the  work  of  selection 
went  on  with  the  utmost  care  and  patience, 
and  year  by  year  the  plants  showed  stronger 
and  gradually  stronger  traces  of  the  mother 
odor.  At  last  the  fragrance  was  fixed,  greatly 
intensified  in  power,  so  that  now  it  is  double 
the  strength  of  the  trailing  arbutus  and  identi- 
cal with  it.  The  flowers  that  were  scentless 
have  been  given  a  powerful  perfume,  so  firmly 
established  that  it  will  not  fade. 

It  occurred  to  Mr.  Burbank  one  day  that  it 
181 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

would  be  interesting  to  give  an  odor  to  a  calla 
upon  which  he  was  working.  Very  carefully 
the  plants  under  test  were  studied,  and  at  last 
one  was  found  which  bore  signs  of  being  a 
desirable  one  to  use  in  furthering  the  experi- 
ment. Work  was  at  once  begun  on  it.  After 
years  of  study  and  labor  he  has  bred  into  a 
scentless  calla  the  odor  of  the  Parma  violet, 
the  rarest  of  violet  odors. 

One  of  the  many  strange  incidents  occurring 
all  through  the  work  which  Mr.  Burbank 
carries  on  developed  while  some  of  the  lily 
tests  were  under  way.  One  curious  lily  had 
gone  backward  into  a  sad  state  of  total 
depravity,  as  far  as  fragrance  is  concerned.  It 
gave  forth  an  odor  so  powerfully  repugnant 
that  the  people  living  in  a  cottage  on  the 
grounds  at  Sebastopol  near  the  lily  bed,  found 
it  impossible  to  endure  it.  One  day  before  the 
bed  was  destroyed,  Mr.  Burbank  was  sitting 
in  the  sunshine  after  his  luncheon  watching  a 
huge  buzzard  soaring  in  the  blue  sky.  Sud- 
denly the  bird  paused  in  its  sweep,  poised  an 
instant,  and  then  shot  down  into  the  bed  of 
lilies.  It  floundered  around  an  instant  in  the 
bed  and  then,  with,  as  Mr.  Burbank  expressed 

182 


BREEDING   FOR  PERFUME 

it,  the  most  disgusted  look  on  a  bird's  face 
he  ever  saw,  flew  away.  While  it  has  long 
been  a  mooted  question  with  naturalists 
as  to  whether  or  not  the  buzzards,  vultures 
and  other  birds  of  prey  of  their  class,  see,  or 
smell,  the  carrion  which  is  their  delight,  the 
view  now  held  by  many  leading  men  is  that 
they  depend  wholly  upon  their  sight,  while 
Mr.  Burbank's  experience  with  his  outcast 
lilies  proved  in  this  instance  the  opposite. 

To  breed  flowers  for  a  certain  quality,— 
beauty,  endurance,  longevity,  hardiness, — this 
is  immensely  difficult.  It  is  immeasurably 
more  difficult  to  breed  them  for  the  produc- 
tion of  perfume,  their  subtlest  element.  Now 
that  Mr.  Burbank  has  demonstrated  that 
flowers  may  be  bred  for  perfume,  that  odors 
may  be  changed,  that  scentless  flowers  may 
be  given  fragrance,  much  work  remains  for 
others.  It  is  incredible,  the  amount  of  work 
he  has  accomplished.  He  has  still  larger 
work  before  him  than  any  he  has  ever 
attempted,  and,  of  necessity,  very  much  that 
he  has  under  way  must  be  carried  forward,  as 
to  details,  by  others.  He  is  never  more 
gratified  than  when  some  one  else  can  take 

183 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

up  work  which  he  has  begun  but  which  he  has 
not  the  time  to  complete,  and  carry  it  forward 
for  the  adornment  or  the  material  welfare  of 
the  world. 

There  is  ample  opportunity  in  the  breeding 
of  perfumes,  as  in  other  departments  of  his 
work,  for  others  to  go  forward  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  more  practical  side.  In  all  the 
initial  experiments,  however,  this  practical  side 
is  never  lost  to  sight.  He  has  a  poet's  love  for 
beauty  and  he  has  rare  delight  in  adding  to 
the  charm  of  the  world,  but  he  bears  along 
with  this  the  intense  practical  nature  of  the 
shrewdest  captain  of  industry.  It  is  a  cardi- 
nal principle  of  Mr.  Burbank's  never  to  make 
a  new  creation  without  developing,  so  far  as 
\/  possible,  its  practical  value. 

Speaking  of  the  making  of  a  blue  rose, — he 
has  already  made  a  blue  poppy, — he  said  that 
it  was  one  of  the  easiest  things  in  the  world  if 
one  should  set  out  diligently  upon  it,  but  it 
would  consume  very  much  time  in  the  making 
and  it  would  be  doubtful,  after  all,  if  it  added 
much  to  the  charm  of  this  rare  flower.  He  has 
studied  the  rose  with  great  care,  and  he  has 
seen  in  the  consideration  of  its  coloring  an 

184 


BREEDING   FOR   PERFUME 

easy  avenue  to  a  land  of  blue  roses.  A  lesser 
man  would  have  hastened  forward  on  the 
road  that  lead  to  this  strange  floral  wonder; 
but,  despite  the  novelty  and  the  fascination 
that  always  surround  the  development  of  a 
new  creation,  he  would  not  enter  in  upon  it 
when  so  many  greater  and  more  valuable 
things  for  the  advancement  of  the  world  lay 
before  him. 

So    everything    that  he    does    must   have,     v 
if  possible,    a  definite  practical  end  in  view, 
—it  must  help  the  world  along. 

So  in  the  breeding  of  flowers  for  perfume, 
the  paramount  thing,  from  the  practical 
point  of  view,  is  to  breed  the  perfume  so 
that  it  will  have  a  direct,  commercial  bear- 
ing. Mr.  Burbank  has  demonstrated  the  com- 
plete pliability  of  flowers  not  only  in  the 
way  of  color  and  structure  but  in  the 
way  of  odor.  It  now  becomes  practicable  to 
take  a  strain  of  roses,  for  example,  which 
are  prolific  and  hardy  but  with  little  or  no 
odor,  and  breed  into  them  the  most  power- 
ful of  perfumes.  It  now  becomes  possible 
to  take  a  flower  having  a  perfume  not  par- 
ticularly agreeable, —  indeed,  one  positively 

185 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

disagreeable, — and  make  its  odor  a  delight. 
It  is  also  possible  to  combine  flowers  of 
different  odors  and  produce  others  unknown 
to  the  world  before. 

But,  in  addition  to  all  this,  it  is  possible, 
following  in  Mr.  Burbank's  lead,  to  breed 
flowers  with  the  requisite  amount  of  vola- 
tile oil,  as  it  is  called,  the  oil  of  the  plant 
which  enables  it  to  hold  its  rare  sweet  scent 
and  from  which,  when  taken  from  the  flower, 
the  perfume  is  obtained.  There  are  several 
processes  for  obtaining  the  perfume  from 
flowers,  but  their  aim  is  identical, — to  iso- 
late and  confine  the  odor  in  some  form  of 
fat  or  oil  and  then  dilute  it  with  alcohol  into 
the  perfumes  we  buy  at  the  chemists. 

Breeding  corn,  for  example,  so  that  it 
shall  have  a  certain  prescribed  amount  of 
fat  has  been  accomplished  and  made  prac- 
ticable. Indeed,  so  completely  successful  is 
this  breeding  that  corns  are  prepared  with 
a  given  per  cent  of  fat  for  animal  or  human 
food,  another  per  cent  for  the  manufac- 
turer of  glucose  who  wants  little  fat  in  his 
corn,  another  for  the  manufacturer  of  corn- 
oil  who  wants  much  fat  and  little  starch. 

186 


BREEDING   FOR   PERFUME 

So  with  flowers;  it  is  entirely  feasible  to 
breed  a  flower  so  that  it  shall  have  a  given 
amount  of  volatile  oil,  selecting  through 
generations  those  flowers  which  show  increas- 
ing amounts  of  this  substance,  —  determined 
by  analysis,  —  and  by  rigid  selection  and  ex- 
clusion developing  those,  as  in  the  corn, 
which  have  in  their  composition  the  requi- 
site amount  of  oil  for  conserving  the  per- 
fume. It  is  not  always  the  flower  with  the 
most  powerful  fragrance  that  is  convertible 
into  the  largest  amount  of  perfume,  but 
the  valuable  one  is  that  which  carries  the 
perfume  most  completely  in  its  oil.  The 
odor  depends,  too,  quite  frequently  upon  the 
quality  rather  than  the  quantity  of  this  oil. 

Given,  then,  a  flower  needing  more  fra- 
grance, one  having  no  odor  but  in  which  it 
is  desirable  that  an  odor  shall  be  placed, 
one  with  a  disagreeable  odor  needing  change, 
or  one  calling  for  a  certain  per  cent  of 
essential  oil  to  mask  its  fragrance  and  aid 
in  converting  it  into  perfume,  —  they  are  all 
to  be  made  over  to  order. 

In  the  mountains  of  Bulgaria,  where  the 
attar  of  roses  reaches  its  height  of  produc- 

187 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

tion,  an  hectare  of  ground, —  2.47  acres,  - 
planted  to  red  roses  from  which  the  per- 
fume chiefly  comes,  yields  6,600  pounds  of 
roses  in  a  season.  When  the  perfume  is  ex- 
tracted there  remain  2.2  pounds  of  rose  attar. 
This  sells  on  the  English  market  at  from 
twenty  to  thirty  shillings  per  ounce,  about 
$7.50,  which  is  $300  gross  income  for  the 
hectare  of  ground. 

Mr.  Burbank  says  that  there  is  no  region 
of  the  world  better  adapted  for  the  raising 
of  roses,  as  well  as  nearly  every  other  kind 
of  perfume-bearing  flower,  than  California, 
and  that  other  regions  of  the  United  States 
can  produce  abundantly  many  kinds  of 
flowers  suited  for  the  manufacture  of  per- 
fumes. At  the  present  time  this  country  con- 
sumes about  eight  millions  of  dollars'  worth 
of  perfumes  a  year.  The  manufacturing  of 
perfumes  in  the  United  States  has  rapidly 
increased.  This  manufacture  is  from  pomades 
or  oils  containing  the  scent,  and  these  are 
made  in  foreign  countries.  Now  and  again 
sporadic  attempts  at  the  extraction  of  per- 
fume have  been  made  in  this  country,  notably 
in  the  case  of  orange  blossoms,  but  the 

188 


oj  O 

•?  A 

«  T3 

§  £ 


1. 1 

13  | 
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f     Q-» 
qj     j^ 


BREEDING    FOR   PERFUME 

amount  so  produced  is  as  nothing  compared 
with  the  amount  necessary  for  manufacturing 
in  the  United  States. 

It  has  been  held  by  some  manufacturers 
that  the  initial  work  of  producing  perfumery 
could  not  be  carried  on  successfully  in  the 
United  States  because  of  the  cheapness  of  the 
labor  of  foreign  countries.  On  this  point  one 
of  the  chief  manufacturers  of  perfume  in  the 
country  says  that  one  of  the  main  reasons  why 
perfumery  is  not  extracted  in  this  country  is 
rather  because  people  pay  so  much  attention 
to  large  things  in  agriculture, — thousand-acre 
farms  and  the  like,  when,  in  reality,  far  more 
money  could  be  made  along  intensive  lines; 
as,  for  example,  in  the  line  of  perfumery  pro- 
duction. When  told  of  the  work  of  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  in  the  breeding  of  flowers  for  perfume, 
he  expressed  the  liveliest  interest  and  amaze- 
ment,— it  was  a  revelation  to  him  of  the 
possibilities  of  his  own  occupation. 

Doubtless,  this  manufacturer  stands  for 
others  in  his  belief  that  the  production  of 
perfumery  in  this  country, — the  basic  pomades 
from  the  flowers  themselves, — has  never  yet 
been  attempted  on  a  large  enough  scale.  The 

189 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

manufacturer  was  deeply  interested,  also,  in 
the  fact  that  through  breeding  and  selection 
the  odor  in  a  given  flower  may  be  doubled,  or 
even  quadrupled,  as  well  as  improved  in 
quality. 

Some  perfumes  of  much  commercial  value, 
as  well  as  of  intense  pleasure  to  those  who  use 
them,  are  manufactured  wholly  from  the 
leaves  of  plants,  and  the  possibilities  in  this 
direction  are  seen  in  the  new  tree  which 
Mr.  Burbank  has  created,  the  fast -growing 
walnut  referred  to  in  a  preceding  chapter. 
The  leaves  of  this  tree,  which  are  very  abun- 
dant, have  a  most  delightful  fragrance.  While 
the  wood  of  the  tree  will  furnish  fuel  and 
material  for  furniture  manufacture  in  greater 
abundance,  considering  time  of  growth,  than 
any  other  tree  outside  the  tropics,  the  leaves 
may  be  made  available  for  the  production  of 
a  rare  perfume, — a  commercial  combination 
at  once  distinctive  and  of  far-reaching  sig- 
nificance. 

With  facilities  in  the  way  of  climate  and 
soil  such  as  no  other  nation  possesses,  and 
with  a  native  stock  to  work  upon  through  the 
labor  of  Mr.  Burbank,  unlike  anything  before 

190 


BREEDING   FOR   PERFUME 

known,  the  production  of  this  delightful 
adjunct  of  the  world's  pleasure  becomes  a 
new  source  of  national  wealth. 

In  this  line  of  Mr.  Burbank's  life-work,  as 
in  hundreds  of  others,  the  remarkable  acts 
accomplished  are  only  a  part  of  the  complete 
achievement.  Sometimes  he  has  had  time  to 
carry  forward  the  work  to  full  commercial 
ends,  but,  as  the  work  of  his  life  so  magnifi- 
cently enlarges,  much  in  the  way  of  detail 
must  be  done  by  other  hands.  He  has  blazed 
a  central  way  up  through  the  Unknown,  and 
he  has  posted  signboards  at  a  thousand  ave- 
nues along  the  way,  telling  how  this  one  may 
be  followed  to  practical  success,  how  that  one 
must  be  shunned  because  it  leads  to  failure, 
how  the  next  road  will  lead  on  and  on  to  an 
open  field  where  harvests  of  grace,  beauty  and 
strength  may  be  reaped. 


191 


CHAPTER  XII 

HARDENING  AND  ADAPTATION 

YERY  early  in  his  business  career  as  a  nur- 
seryman two  facts  became  apparent  to 
Mr.  Burbank: — First,  that  there  were  many 
fruit-growers  who  paid  but  little  attention  to 
the  selection  of  stock  suited  to  their  climate, 
having  the  impression  that  one  fruit  tree  of 
a  given  type  was  as  good  as  another;  and, 
second,  that  there  was  a  great  work  to  be 
done  in  adapting  fruits  to  climates,  in  aiding 
Nature  to  do  what  she  had  been  unable  to 
do  herself. 

With  this  in  view,  he  set  out  upon  an 
exhaustive  study  of  the  chief  fruit  trees, — not 
merely  a  study  of  them  from  the  botanical 
point  of  view  but,  so  to  use  the  word,  from  a 
physiological  point,  to  ascertain  their  full  phy- 
sical characteristics.  In  so  doing  he  was  able  to 
find  out  precisely  what  was  lacking  in  a  given 
tree  in  a  given  climate  and  to  lead  that  tree 
into  a  closer  articulation  with  its  surroundings. 

192 


HARDENING  AND  ADAPTATION 

The  problems  that  arose  in  this  line  of  work 
were  among  the  most  difficult  he  had  ever 
encountered.  Very  much  had  to  be  taken  into 
account, — the  past  of  the  tree,  not  only  imme- 
diate but  remote,  its  failures  and  successes 
under  different  environment  influences,  its 
limitations,  its  need  of  new  blood  by  crossing 
or  the  restoration  of  its  depleted  veins  through 
selection.  For  Mr.  Burbank  had  come  to  look 
upon  all  plant  life  as  being  very  closely  allied 
to  the  life  of  man,  open  to  many  similar 
attacks,  subject  to  many  diseases,  needing  the 
keen  eye  of  the  physician  and  the  dietarian, 
responding  to  heat  and  cold,  light  and  shadow, 
inactivity  and  exercise.  He  early  recognized, 
too,  the  importance  of  transference,  the  intro- 
duction of  a  fruit  from  a  distant  quarter  of  the 
globe,  engrafting  its  life  upon  the  life  which 
was  not  coming  up  to  its  opportunities.  He 
recognized  that  that  which  holds  true  in  the 
human  race, — that  admixture  of  blood  is  desir- 
able, indeed  is  imperative  at  intervals,  in  order 
to  prevent  such  physical  decadence  as  follows 
the  intermarrying  of  royal  families, — held 
true  sometimes  in  the  vegetable  world;  there 
were  certain  families  that  needed  new  blood 

193 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

from  a  different  quarter  in  order  to  restore 
their  slowly  ebbing  virility. 

An  illustration  of  this  was  seen  in  the  case 
of  trees  which  would  not  withstand  frost.  He 
took  into  account  large  areas  of  land  generally 
in  varying  strips  running  down  along  the 
Atlantic  seaboard,  on  by  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
and  even  up  along  the  California  coast,  where 
certain  fruits,  as  the  peach,  nectarine  and 
plum,  became  problematical  crops  because  of 
the  early  frosts  in  the  spring.  By  breeding 
and  selection,  choosing  for  combination  fruits 
from  a  far  colder  climate,  he  produced  fruit 
trees  of  this  type  that  will  withstand  absolute 
freezing  in  bud,  in  flower,  in  infant  fruit. 
Even  when  the  petals  of  the  flower  are  stiff 
with  ice,  they  show  no  signs  of  wilting  when 
the  sun  has  thawed  them  out.  To  make  assur- 
ance doubly  sure,  the  trees  were  placed  in 
localities  where  heavy  frosts  came  early,  and 
they  splendidly  withstood  the  freezing. 

The  value  of  this  work  to  the  world  is  not 
within  estimate.  The  proximity  of  the  sea- 
coast  regions  mentioned  to  city  markets,  ren- 
dering the  production  of  such  fruits  at  a  very 
early  date  in  the  spring  a  matter  of  direct 

194 


HARDENING  AND  ADAPTATION 

financial  importance  to  growers,  is  a  feature 
not  less  significant  than  the  satisfaction  of 
fruit-lovers  in  these  regions  at  being  able  to 
procure  much  prized  but  heretofore  unobtain- 
able supplies  near  at  hand. 

But  hardening  a  plant  does  not  by  any 
means,  in  Mr.  Burbank's  use  of  the  word,  mean 
hardening  against  cold  alone.  It  may  be  har- 
dening against  heat,  against  the  wind,  against 
rain,  against  'drought,  diseases  or  insects. 

A  most  interesting  demonstration  of  the 
possibilities  in  these  directions  was  in  the  case 
of  the  gladioli.  In  California,  and  in  any 
warm  climate  with  a  rich  soil  below  their  feet, 
the  old-fashioned  gladioli  grew  rank  and  tall, 
and,  in  case  there  was,  in  their  blooming  sea- 
son, considerable  wind,  they  were  more  than 
apt  to  be  injured  or  wholly  destroyed.  So  he 
bred  gladioli  to  withstand  wind.  Where  the 
stems  were  from  five  to  six  feet  tall  he  bred 
them  down  to  three  feet,  at  the  same  time 
making  the  stalk  much  thicker  and  stronger. 
This  was  done  by  crossing  and  selection, 
always  choosing  those  plants  which  were  ap- 
proaching nearest  the  end  desired  until  the 
required  length  and  strength  were  attained. 

195 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

Another  difficulty  with  the  gladioli  was  that 
the  petals  were  so  thin  and  fragile  they  would 
not  stand  the  California  sun,  so  he  bred  with 
this  end  in  view,  producing  flowers  at  last  that 
were  thick  of  petal  and  able  to  withstand  the 
heat  of  the  warmest  day.  In  order  to  accom- 
plish the  ends  desired,  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  seedlings  were  grown  and  crossed  and 
re-crossed  in  many  blendings. 

While  this  work  was  in  progress,  he  set 
about  another  feature  which  may  be  men- 
tioned here  incidentally,  the  teaching  of  the 
gladioli  to  bloom  around  their  entire  stem 
instead  of  on  one  side,  as  had  been  their  life- 
long habit.  After  long  years  of  selection,  he 
produced  gladioli  which  have  the  hyacinth 
form  instead  of  the  old  top-heavy  form  bloom- 
ing on  but  one  side  of  the  stem.  The  new 
flower  stands  erect,  with  all  its  blossoms  evenly 
distributed  upon  its  stem.  At  the  same  time 
he  greatly  increased  the  flower  in  size  and  in 
beauty,  giving  many  new  notes  in  the  scheme 
of  color. 

I  saw  Mr.  Burbank  one  day  walking  among 
a  number  of  his  men  as  they  were  working  on 
the  proving  grounds  at  Sebastopol.  They 

196 


HARDENING   AND   ADAPTATION 

happened  to  be  setting  out  tiny  plants,  new 
types  of  berries  under  test.  The  long  rows 
were  clearly  outlined  in  the  earth,  stretching 
like  tiny  green  threads  across  an  acre  or  two 
of  ground.  The  plants  were  set  out  just  as 
they  came  from  the  little  square  boxes  in 
which  they  had  been  raised  from  the  seeds, 
thousands  of  them  being  put  out,  and  as  Mr. 
Burbank  came  to  one  of  the  workmen  he  said : 

"If  I  only  knew  which  one  of  all  these 
thousands  is  the  one  I  want,  you  wouldn't 
need  to  set  out  any  of  the  rest." 

So  in  all  the  work  of  hardening  and  adapt- 
ing, if  he  only  knew  precisely  which  ones  to 
cross  to  produce  the  results  in  the  shortest 
possible  time,  how  great  would  be  the  saving! 
But  there  are  few  laws  to  guide  when  a  new 
creation  in  the  plant  world  is  to  be  made,  and 
none  which  will  anticipate  the  end.  Bending 
over  a  path  one  day  as  we  were  walking 
through  the  grounds,  he  drew  a  long  line  in 
the  earth.  Then  he  drew  cross  lines  at 
intervals. 

"There  is  the  scheme,"  he  said.  "That  long 
line  represents  the  life  of  the  plant  through  all 
its  past  history.  This  cross  line  represents  a 

197 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

break,  a  sudden,  sharp  break  in  its  life.  I  have 
introduced  a  new  element  into  the  old  life.  I 
have  broken  it  up.  Henceforth  if  I  keep  on 
breeding  and  selecting  from  this  new  line  the 
old  life  can  never  be  quite  the  same  again.  If 
the  fruit  tree,  for  example,  has  been  for  all  its 
history  growing  in  a  certain  climate  under 
certain  practically  unvarying  conditions  of 
moisture,  heat  and  cold,  it  must  be  abruptly 
changed  in  order  that  it  shall  accommodate 
itself  to  new  degrees  of  heat  or  cold  or 
different  amounts  of  moisture.  To  what 
distance  I  shah1  carry  the  plant  along  its  new 
line  depends  upon  how  soon  it  achieves,  and  is 
fixed  in,  the  life  I  wish  it  to  assume.  Very 
many  theories  have  been  held  based  upon 
carrying  a  plant  a  certain  distance.  When  the 
point  was  reached  where  the  plant  appeared  to 
refuse  to  go  any  further,  the  conclusion  has 
usually  been  that  this  ends  it  all.  This  is 
by  no  means  the  case.  Plants  are  sometimes 
stubborn  and  need  discipline.  It  is  utterly 
impossible  to  say  that  a  plant  can  have  only  a 
certain  number  of  leaves,  or  a  certain  number 
of  seed- capsules  or  a  certain  number  of  certain 
other  characters.  The  trouble  is  that  men  have 

198 


HARDENING  AND  ADAPTATION 

not  gone  far  enough,  have  stopped  when  appa- 
rently there  was  no  other  outcome,  but  when 
they  were,  in  reality,  only  at  the  beginning,  or, 
at  best,  in  the  middle,  of  their  difficulties.  It 
is  hard  work, — it  takes  time,  it  takes  patience, 
it  takes  persistence,  to  go  on  beyond,  but  is  it 
not  worth  it? 

"Now  and  then  the  limit  appears  to  be 
passed  and  the  theorist  says,  'Ah,  but  this 
is  only  an  abnormality,  a  monstrosity.'  Yes, 
but  is  it?  How  does  he  know  it  is?  How 
does  he  know  but  that  the  very  abnormality 
may  not  be  followed  and  helped  and  developed 
until  it  becomes  a  splendid  norm,  reproducing 
it  again  and  again  and  again,  strengthening  it 
where  necessary,  but  all  the  time  pressing  it 
forward  and  finally  fixing  it?  How  many 
normalities  have  we  now  in  plant  life  that 
were  not,  in  one  sense,  once  abnormalities? 

"In  hardening  a  plant  from  cold,  it  is 
generally  best  to  select  for  stock  upon  which 
to  work  those  plants  which  have  naturally 
the  hardiest  bulbs,  the  hardiest  leaves,  and  the 
hardiest  wood, — generally,  I  say,  though  not 
always.  An  arctic  plant  which  may  have  all 
these  characteristics  may  prove  very  valuable 

199 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

for  blending  with  a  plant  long  accustomed 
to  the  warmer  portions  of  the  temperate  zone. 
Then,  by  uniting  this  arctic  plant  with  the 
temperate  zone  plant,  I  reach  a  plant  which  is 
of  the  right  frost  resistance  to  be  grown  in  the 
colder  parts  of  the  temperate  zones,  and  thus 
are  made  possible  these  frost-resisting  fruit  trees 
which  will  bear  stiff  freezing  without  harm. 
Another  plant  may  be  troubled  with  cold,  wet 
feet — it  needs  hardening  so  that  it  will  grow 
satisfactorily  in  a  soil  that  may  be  wet.  So  it 
must  be  bred  against  this.  One  of  the  arctic 
plants,  for  example,  which  has  never  grown  in 
the  temperate  zone  may  be  a  very  desirable 
plant  to  introduce,  but  it  has  never  been  used 
to  a  warm,  early  spring  and  it  begins  its 
budding  and  blossoming  so  early  that  it  fails  to 
accomplish  what  it  should  in  fruit  or  flower 
productions.  So  it  is  necessary  to  breed  it  in 
turn  to  temperate  climate  conditions. 

"  Cross  a  hardy  plant  and  a  tender  plant 
and  often  the  tendency  is  toward  the  hardy ; 
the  waves,  so  to  speak,  sweep  ever  up  toward 
the  hardy,  to  the  highest  limits  of  the  hardy, 
and  some  few  sweep  up  over; — it  is  these  few 
we  must  catch  and  make  use  of,  for,  on  an 

200 


HARDENING  AND  ADAPTATION 

average,  the  waves  will  go  no  higher  than  the 
point  of  greatest  hardiness.  Thus,  as  the  work 
progresses,  the  plants  which  now  and  then 
show  peculiar  hardiness  beyond  the  normal  are 
chosen  to  carry  forward  the  tests.  From  these 
very  hardiest  ones,  after  long  breeding  and 
selection  come  the  ones  which  are  not  only  to 
unite  the  desirable  qualities  of  their  forbears 
but  which  are  to  be  fitted  for  their  new  envir- 
onment." 

But  in  addition  to  hardening  plants  against 
all  these — sun  and  ice  and  drought  and  rain, — 
they  must  be  hardened  for  shipping  and  allied 
purposes.  Mr.  Burbank  may  have  a  fruit,  for 
example,  which  matures  early,  is  of  a  very 
desirable  character  aud  would  sell  well  at  a 
long  distance  from  its  point  of  production.  But 
it  is  too  soft — it  will  not  stand  shipment.  So 
he  puts  it  through  a  long  course  of  training,  so 
to  speak,  and,  when  he  is  through  with  it,  it  will 
bear  the  long  shipment  and  come  out  at  the 
end  of  the  journey  as  fine  as  when  it  started. 

In  the  production  of  the  prune,  the  outer 
skin  has  an  important  bearing  upon  the  suc- 
cess of  the  industry.  After  the  prunes  have 
been  gathered  and  graded  in  size,  they  are 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

dipped  in  a  weak  solution  of  lye,  in  order  to 
thin  and  crack  the  skin,  to  enable  the  mois- 
ture easily  to  escape  when  the  drying  process 
comes,  thus  preventing  fermentation.  After 
they  are  dipped  they  are  placed  in  the  sun  to 
dry  or,  in  regions  where  there  is  not  sufficient 
sunshine,  in  machine  driers.  Some  prunes  have 
so  thick  a  skin  that  they  require  far  too  much 
lye  treatment,  some  are  so  thin  that  they 
burst  open  under  the  treatment  and  are  thus 
destroyed  for  regular  prune  packing.  Mr. 
Burbank  has  obviated  this  difficulty  by  breed- 
ing a  prune  with  a  skin  so  delicately  veined 
and  so  susceptible  to  the  solution  that  it  needs 
but  a  trifling  dipping  to  crack  in  fine  thread- 
like lines  and  thus  permit  the  escape  of  the 
moisture.  This  new  prune,  by  thus  having 
its  skin  bred  to  precisely  the  right  thickness, 
must  supplant  other  prunes,  either  too  thick 
or  too  thin  or  too  variable. 

The  extension  of  this  line  of  Mr.  Burbank's 
work  is  practically  limitless.  DeVries,  the 
Dutch  botanist  elsewhere  referred  to,  com- 
menting upon  the  extensive  work  of  Mr. 
Burbank,  says: 

"  Specialization  with  him  is  not  the  limit- 

202 


HARDENING    AND   ADAPTATION 

ing  of  the  number  of  genuses  and  species,  but 
in  the  analogous  method  to  which  he  submits 
all  of  them.  And  so  this  method  is  by  him 
carried  to  the  highest  degree  of  perfection, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  results  are  so  im- 
mense that  they  receive  the  admiration  of  the 
whole  world.  His  pears  and  apples,  adapted 
for  canning  and  drying,  have  a  quality  and  a 
productiveness  such  that,  in  spite  of  the  cost 
of  preparation  and  the  expense  of  transporta- 
tion, they  are  competing  with  splendid  success 
in  Europe  with  the  kinds  there  cultivated  and 
are  a  source  of  revenue  for  large  stretches  of 
country,  which  they  carry  up  to  a  hitherto 
unknown  state  of  prosperity.  The  production 
of  such  varieties,  therefore,  has  the  greatest 
direct  influence  upon  the  growth  and  progress 
of  agriculture  and  horticulture.  It  promises 
work  for  thousands  of  people  and  to  the  most 
enterprising  amongst  them  it  gives  a  chance 
for  the  rapid  acquisition  of  wealth." 

This  appreciation  on  the  part  of  one  of  the 
foremost  scientific  men  in  the  world  is  in 
direct  line  with  the  appreciation  which  Mr. 
Burbank  receives  in  letters  from  practical 
fruit-growers  from  all  over  the  world. 

203 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

But  a  singular  situation  is  suggested  by  the 
possibilities  of  this  adaptation.  One  of  the 
leading  fruit-growers  of  northern  California, 
an  ardent  admirer  of  Mr.  Burbank  and  largely 
interested  in  the  production  of  some  of  his 
new  fruits,  makes  the  point  that,  in  spite  of 
the  great  work  Mr.  Burbank  has  done  and  is 
doing,  for  the  development  of  fruit-culture  in 
California,  the  supremacy  of  California  as  a 
fruit  -  producing  state  is  eventually  to  be 
threatened,  because  of  the  fact  that  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  is  adapting  so  many  of  the  fruits,  now 
grown  in  California  extensively,  to  other 
regions  of  the  country.  Thus,  if  he  makes  a 
pear  so  hardy  that  it  will  grow  in  a  climate 
where  pears  have  never  been  grown  success- 
fully before,  or  in  like  manner  hardens  a 
peach,  a  prune,  an  apricot,  a  plum  or  a  cherry, 
the  fruit-growers  of  that  region  will  be  swift 
to  adopt  the  new  fruit.  They  will  at  once  be 
given  an  immediate  market;  their  customers 
will  be  delighted  that  they  can  get  the  choicest 
fruits  at  their  very  doors  and  filled  with  pride 
that  their  climate  is  no  longer  to  be  pro- 
nounced inimical  to  fruit-raising;  while  a  new 
and  profitable  industry  springs  into  life. 

204 


HARDENING   AND   ADAPTATION 

Mr.  Burbank  is  a  loyal  Californian,  but  he 
is  also  loyal  to  all  the  fruit  interests  of  the 
world.  From  his  own  catholic  point  of  view 
his  mission  among  men  is  to  do  the  greatest 
possible  good  to  the  greatest  possible  number 
of  the  race. 

The  following,  bearing  directly  upon  the 
subject  of  adaptation  of  fruits  to  other  regions, 
is  the  opinion  of  a  practical  fruit-grower  of 
California : 

"Mr.  Burbank  is  doing  for  the  East  in  plum 
culture,  what  Hale  and  other  peach -growers 
have  done  for  the  peach  crop.  He  will 
increase  it  ten-fold,  perhaps  a  hundred-fold, 
and  deprive  California,  to  that  extent,  of  a 
market  for  her  plums.  California  ships  mil- 
lions of  boxes  of  plums  to  the  eastern  markets 
annually,  and  the  business  is  highly  profitable. 
Now  comes  Mr.  Burbank  and  creates  new 
plums  by  the  dozens,  that  bear  enormously 
and  live  and  thrive  equally  well  in  the  frozen 
North,  the  sunny  South  or  the  favoring  cli- 
mate of  California.  Is  it  not  possible  that  the 
California  plum  market  will  go  the  way  of  the 
peach  market  after  Mr.  Burbank's  plums  shall 
have  been  sufficiently  grown  in  the  East?  Of 

205 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

course,  this  will  not  worry  Mr.  Burbank,  for 
he  is  a  citizen  of  the  world  rather  than  of  Cali- 
fornia. His  avowed  purpose  is  'to  make  the 
very  best  fruits  and  nuts  an  every-day  food  for 
all,  instead  of  an  occasional  luxury  for  the 
few.'  No  doubt  the  world  will  be  benefited, 
although  California's  present  favorable  position 
in  plum  culture  may  be  shaken." 


206 


s 

I 

OJ 

be 

.s 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ON  THE  ORIGIN  OF  NEW  SPECIES 


a  dweller  upon  some  other 
planet  where  some  other  sun  kisses  its 
earth  into  life  come  down  through  space  bear- 
ing a  fruit  as  yet  untasted  by  the  world-men, 
it  would  not  be  more  distinctive,  or  more  deli- 
cious to  the  taste,  than  the  fruit  which  Mr. 
Burbank  picked  one  summer  day  from  a  tree 
which  he  had  made  from  three  other  trees. 
For  the  fruit  which  he  picked  was  unlike  any 
other  fruit  which  had  grown  on  the  earth 
before  —  it  was  absolutely  new,  he  had  accom- 
plished that  which  men  had  said  was  impos- 
sible. So  it  has  been  said  on  other  occasions, 
—  such  and  such  things  cannot  be  done.  Mr. 
Burbank  says,  Wait;  let  us  see  about  it. 

He  took  a  wild  American  plum,  a  Japanese 
plum,  and  an  apricot.  He  bred  these  three 
together  and  made  a  third,  the  plumcot,  dif- 
ferent in  texture,  color  and  taste  from  any 
other  fruit.  Not  only  did  he  thus  create  a 

207 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

new  fruit,  adding  much  to  the  dietary  of  the 
nations,  but  in  this,  and  a  number  of  similar 
instances,  he  has  opened  the  way  to  an  indefi- 
nite extension  of  the  same  principle — the  crea- 
tion of  fruits  which  shall  supplant  or  supple- 
ment old  ones.  Indeed  there  are  now  opened 
in  many  lines  of  plant  life,  by  this  demonstra- 
tion of  the  feasibility  of  creating  new  species, 
possibilities  whose  scope  is  limitless. 

The  plumcot  by  some  might  still  be  pro- 
nounced only  a  variation  or  combination  of 
similar  species, — though,  as  will  be  seen  later, 
even  this  objection  will  not  lie  against  the 
primus  berry  and  the  phenomenal  berry.  And 
yet,  when  two  such  absolutely  different,  even 
if  allied,  fruits  as  the  plum  and  the  apricot 
are  bred  together,  producing  a  third  and  abso- 
lutely new  fruit,  it  is  quite  difficult  to  see 
wherein  this  is  not  a  new  and  distinct  species. 

This  new  fruit  is  not  only  delightful  to  the 
taste  but  it  is  very  interesting  in  its  character. 
Sometimes  the  flesh  will  be  yellow,  sometimes 
pink,  sometimes  white  or  crimson.  Sometimes 
it  has  pits  like  the  apricot,  sometimes  like  the 
plum.  The  fruit  is  highly  colored,  maintain- 
ing the  prevailing  hues  of  the  apricot.  The 

208 


ON   THE    ORIGIN   OF   NEW  SPECIES 

flavor  of  the  new  fruit  is  indescribable,  as 
unique  as  it  is  delicious. 

The  new  fruit  was  produced  in  the  usual 
way,  the  three  basic  fruits  being  inter-pol- 
lenated  so  that  there  was  a  thorough  blending 
or  crossing  of  them  all.  Then  selection  was 
made  from  the  crosses  until  at  length,  after 
years  had  elapsed,  giving  time  to  fix  it  so  it 
would  not  revert,  the  new  fruit  was  produced. 
There  yet  remains  further  work  upon  it  before 
it  shall  be  given  to  the  world,  but  its  place 
in  the  world  as  a  new  and  distinct  type  of 
fruit  life  is  now  assured.  Mr.  Burbank  began 
this  particular  experiment  in  another  line,  the 
crossing  of  a  plum  and  an  almond;  then 
branching  off  into  the  plum-apricot  line  as 
promising  more  satisfactory  results.  The  plum 
and  the  almond  combined  in  a  sense,  produc- 
ing some  spectacular  plant  effects,  but  the 
union  did  not  promise  results  worthy  of 
further  work,  so  it  was  dropped. 

Other  curious  combinations  have  from  time 
to  time  been  made,  with  results  not  yet  fully 
determined  in  some  cases.  A  raspberry  and  a 
strawberry  were  united.  Strange  results  devel- 
oped. The  plants  were  curious  indeed.  The 

209 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

plants  were  entirely  thornless,  absolutely  and 
invariably  persisting  in  the  strawberry  charac- 
teristics. They  bore  leaves,  but  instead  of 
having  raspberry  leaves,  as  would  be  natural 
to  go  with  their  long  stems,  the  leaves  were 
all  trifoliate,  a  regular  strawberry  leaf.  Under 
ground,  the  plant  sent  out  long  branches,  or 
stolons,  precisely  as  the  strawberry  plant  sends 
them  out  above  ground.  These  stolons  bore 
plants,  and  when  they  came  up  they  took  on 
the  length  of  stem  of  the  raspberry  parent, 
growing  from  three  to  five  feet  in  height. 
Flowers  came  in  great  abundance,  three  or 
four  times  as  many  as  the  raspberry,  seven  or 
eight  times  as  many  as  the  strawberry.  But 
the  plant  was  foredoomed,  for  it  bore  no  fruit. 
Flowers  came  in  abundance,  indeed,  lived  their 
allotted  time,  and  dropped  to  the  ground,  but 
the  only  fruit,  or  approach  to  a  fruit  was  a 
little  knob  where  the  fruit  should  have  been, 
a  very  travesty  of  a  berry.  Hundreds  of  these 
plants  were  grown. 

An  apple  was  crossed  with  a  blackberry. 
The  plant  which  followed  was  apple  so  far  as 
foliage  and  general  character  were  concerned, 
although  in  the  thickness  and  general  charac- 

210 


ON   THE    ORIGIN   OF   NEW  SPECIES 

ter  of  the  leaves  the  blackberry  influence  was 
unmistakably  apparent.  Strangely  enough, 
the  blackberry  seeds  which  came  from  the 
cross  produced  the  apple-tree  growth.  Four 
to  five  thousand  trees  were  thus  grown,  all 
practically  identical  in  character.  All  but  two 
of  the  cross  refused  to  fruit,  though  almost  all 
of  them  blossomed  abundantly.  Some  of  the 
blossoms  were  rose-colored  like  the  apple, 
some  of  them  almost  crimson.  Nearly  all 
were  thornless. 

A  black  raspberry  was  crossed  with  a  black- 
berry, with  the  result  that  most  of  the  product 
of  the  union  died  just  as  fruit-bearing  time 
came  on.  Many  hybrids,  Mr.  Burbank  notes, 
die  when  it  comes  to  the  age  of  reproduction 
because,  for  one  or  another  reason,  the  stamina 
of  the  parents  is  exhausted  and  the  act  of 
fruit  production  proves  too  great  a  strain. 
The  mountain  ash  and  the  blackberry  were 
also  crossed,  resulting  in  a  salmon-colored 
fruit,  the  bush  bearing  no  thorns.  Many  com- 
binations of  peaches  and  almonds  have  been 
made,  further  tests  in  this  combination  now 
being  under  way.  In  the  proving  grounds  at 
Sebastopol  there  stands  a  row  of  these  peach- 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

almond  crosses,  raised  from  seeds.  The  great 
difference  between  seedlings  is  shown  in  this 
row.  One  peach-almond  tree  is  six  to  seven 
inches  in  diameter  at  the  base,  with  branches 
running  from  two  to  four  inches  thick  where 
they  leave  the  trunk.  The  tree  is  perhaps 
twenty  feet  high,  with  a  large  spread  of 
branches.  Directly  alongside  are  several  peach 
seedlings  of  the  same  age.  Their  trunks  are 
not  thicker  than  the  branches  of  the  other  tree 
and  they  are  not  over  six  feet  in  height.  They 
are  poor  and  scant  of  foliage  as  compared  with 
the  others.  The  peach-almond  combination 
generally  produces  a  pit-nut,  so  to  call  it, 
which  has  the  outside  character  of  a  peach  pit, 
and  inside  the  thin  inner  shell  of  the  almond. 
Sometimes  the  flesh  of  the  hybrid  fruit  that 
has  come  from  the  cross  has  been  too  thin, 
sometimes  there  has  been  too  much  stone. 
The  final  results  of  this  cross  will  be  looked 
for  with  great  interest. 

Many  other  combinations  have  been  made. 
No  one  may  tell  what  inter- combination  of 
these  crosses  might  have  accomplished  if  the 
breeding  and  selection  had  been  pushed  fur- 
ther. But  when  Mr.  Burbank  finds  that  a 


ON   THE    ORIGIN    OF   NEW  SPECIES 

union  of  two  diverse  fruits  does  not  within  a 
reasonable  time  satisfactorily  respond,  he  drops 
it,  even  though  it  may  hold  out  ultimate  pos- 
sibilities. 

But  important  from  a  scientific  and  practi- 
cal  point  of  view  as  the  plumcot  is,  it  is  over- 
shadowed in  scientific  interest,  in  a  sense,  by 
the  "Primus"  berry.  This  was  an  absolutely 
new  species  of  fruit,  the  first  known  recorded 
species  directly  created  by  man.  The  primus 
berry  was  made  from  the  native  California 
dewberry  and  a  Siberian  raspberry.  The  two 
were  crossed  by  pollenation  for  the  purpose  of 
developing,  if  possible,  a  distinct  new  fruit. 
Seedlings  were  then  raised  from  the  cross,  and 
then  followed  years  of  selecting  of  the  best 
from  the  best.  In  the  production  of  hybrid 
raspberries  or  blackberries  in  general  very 
many  species  are  drawn  upon.  For  example, 
he  has  worked  upon  over  forty  different  black- 
berries gathered  from  all  over  the  world  to 
produce  from  among  their  many  crosses  new 
hybrid  types  which  should  be  better  in  various 
ways  than  any  of  the  ancestors, — larger,  finer 
of  flavor,  more  beautiful,  better  to  ship.  But 
in  this  particular  test  he  restricted  the  factors 

213 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

to  two  and  kept  up  the  work  thus  to  the  end. 
The  merging  of  the  dewberry  and  the  Siberian 
raspberry  was  complete.  The  fruit  was  unlike 
either  parent  in  form,  color  and  taste.  There 
were  no  abnormalities.  The  flowering  was 
fine,  the  fruitage  large  and  natural,  the  foliage 
normal,  the  persistence  absolute.  Several 
years  were  allowed  to  elapse  before  the  new 
fruit  was  put  upon  the  market,  in  order  to  fix 
its  new  life  habits,  to  make  sure  that  it  did 
not  break  away  or  return  to  some  of  its  old 
ways.  The  flavor  of  the  berry  was  neither  that 
of  the  dewberry  nor  the  raspberry,  it  was 
unique  and  most  delightful  to  the  taste  of 
most  people.  It  ripened  its  main  crop  at  the 
same  time  with  the  strawberries  and  continued 
to  bear  more  or  less  all  summer.  Its  fruit 
ripened  long  before  most  of  the  standard,  well- 
known  kinds  of  raspberries  and  blackberries 
had  begun  to  bloom. 

One  curious  feature  of  the  new  fruit,  and 
one  which  seems  specially  significant,  was  that 
nearly  all  the  other  seedlings  wrhich  grew  from 
the  same  cross  were  absolutely  barren.  They 
blossomed  abundantly  and  the  blossoms  of 
many  plants  seemed  perfect,  but  Nature 


ON   THE   ORIGIN   OF   NEW  SPECIES 

refused  to  grant  fruitage  to  any  of  them. 
Strangely  enough,  too,  the  new  berry  upon 
which  Nature  bestowed  its  favor  ripens  its 
fruit  several  weeks  earlier  than  either  parent 
and  excels  both  in  productiveness. 

In  planting  over  five  thousand  seeds  of  the 
new  berry,  every  one  produced  a  primus  berry, 
with  such  slight  variations  as  may  be  observed 
in  seedlings  of  any  other  fixed  species.  This 
added  the  last  needed  proof,  if  other  proof 
were  necessary,  showing  that  amalgamation 
had  been  complete. 

By  all  scientific  rules  and  tests,  as  well  as  by 
the  canons  of  common  sense,  the  primus  berry 
takes  its  place  with  the  plumcot  and  the  phe- 
nomenal berry  as  distinct  new  creations.  It 
should  be  noted,  however,  that  not  every  plum- 
cot  seed  planted  produces  a  plumcot,  thus  fix- 
ing it  also  as  distinct.  Some  slightly  incline  to 
one  parent,  some  to  the  other,  as  not  enough 
time  has  elapsed  completely  to  fix  the  type. 

After  the  creation  of  the  primus  berry  came 
that  of  the  Phenomenal  berry,  in  itself  as  won- 
derful as  either  the  plumcot  or  the  primus 
berry.  It  was  the  result  of  the  union  of  the 
California  wild  dewberry  and  the  Cuthbert 

215 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

raspberry,  a  complete  cross,  producing  an 
absolutely  new  berry,  larger  than  the  largest 
berry  ever  before  known.  Each  plant  produces 
annually  eight  to  ten  stalks  or  canes  about 
twelve  feet  in  height.  The  berries  are  very 
large,  light  to  dark  crimson  in  color,  and 
grow  in  remarkable  profusion. 

Very  many  other  crosses  have  been  made 
with  varying  results,  embracing: 

Peaches  and  almonds,  peach  and  chicksaw 
plum,  almond  and  Japanese  plum,  apricot  and 
Japanese  plum,  Chinese  quince  and  common 
quince,  quince  and  crab-apple,  Japanese  quince 
and  apple,  potato  and  tomato,  apricot  and 
peach,  domestic  plum  and  wild  goose  plum, 
wild  crab-apple  and  common  apple,  quince  and 
apple,  nicotiana  and  petunia,  rose  and  apple, 
hawthorn  and  blackberry,  quince  and  black- 
berry. 

Speaking  of  crossing  and  selection  in  gen- 
eral, Mr.  Burbank  says: 

"There  is  no  barrier  to  obtaining  fruits  of 
any  size,  form  or  flavor  desired,  and  none  to 
producing  plants  and  flowers  of  any  form,  color 
or  fragrance.  All  that  is  needed  is  a  knowledge 
to  guide  our  efforts  in  the  right  direction, 

216 


ON   THE    ORIGIN   OF   NEW  SPECIES 

undeviating  patience,  and  cultivated  eyes  to 
detect  variations  of  values." 

The  production  of  these  three  new  and 
valuable  species  of  fruits  is  not  only  of  great 
interest  and  large  economic  value,  but  it  opens 
the  way  to  an  indefinite  extension.  Here,  as 
in  many  other  lines,  much  work  remains  to  be 
done  by  other  hands.  Within  certain  limita- 
tions there  remain  vast  opportunities  for  the 
production  of  other  fruits,  of  grains  and  grasses 
and  trees  and  all  manner  of  plant  life  now 
unknown  to  the  world.  Not  only  is  novelty 
to  be  looked  for,  but  important  additions  to 
man's  resources.  If  a  combination  of  certain 
grains,  for  example,  could  be  made  producing 
a  wholly  new  grain  of  augmented  food  supply 
and  productivity,  the  importance  of  the 
product  to  the  world  would  be  beyond 
estimate. 

Such  creations  as  these  Mr.  Burbank  has 
effected,  with  many  other  improvements  upon 
old  forms  of  plant  life,  establish  anew  the  fact 
that  the  time  which  has  been  predicted  by 
some  pessimistic  theorists,  when  there  will  be 
too  many  people  on  the  globe  for  the  produc- 
tivity of  the  earth,  must  be  set  forward  so 

217 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

many  ages  as  to  leave  no  further  cause  for 
even  academic  apprehension. 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  that,  in  the  progress 
of  these  and  other  experiments,  Mr.  Burbank 
demonstrates  the  fallacy  of  another  scientific 
statement.  It  has  long  been  held  that,  under 
certain  conditions,  the  progeny  of  a  given 
plant  union  would  be  affected  in  a  demon- 
strable way  by  one  or  the  other  of  the  parents, 
the  parental  life  fixing  itself  in  certain  positive 
and  indelible  forms  upon  the  child  life.  In 
the  midst  of  vast  experiments  where  he  has 
had  unrivaled  opportunities  for  studying 
every  phase  of  plant  life,  Mr.  Burbank  has 
again  and  again  demonstrated  that  this  power, 
prepotency  as  it  is  called,  simply  depends 
upon  heredity  and  that  there  is  no  prepotency 
of  male  or  female  as  such.  Other  things  being 
equal,  he  says  it  may  be  set  down  as  fixed 
that  there  is  absolutely  no  balance  in  favor  of 
either  sex,  as  sex.  Upon  this  point  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  says: 

"In  grafting,  every  conceivable  stage  of 
congeniality  between  stock  and  graft  is  found, 
from  actual  poisoning  to  refusal  to  unite;  unit- 
ing and  not  growing;  or  growing  for  a  short 

218 


ON   THE    ORIGIN    OF   NEW  SPECIES 

time  and  dying;  or  separating  where  united;  or 
bearing  one  or  two  crops  of  fruit  and  then 
suddenly  blighting;  or  separating  after  years  of 
growth  up  to  complete  congeniality.  So  it  is 
in  crossing, — all  grades  of  hybridity  are  to  be 
found.  Crossed  plants  generally  have  the 
characteristics  of  both  parents  combined,  yet 
sometimes  show  their  parental  influences  on 
one  side,  producing  uncertain  results  in  the 
first  generation.  In  the  second  and  succeeding 
generations  these  cross-bred  seedlings  usually 
break  away  into  endless  forms  and  combi- 
nations, sometimes  reverting  to  some  strange 
ancestral  form  which  existed  in  the  dim  past. 
Or  the  break  may  not  occur  until  after  many 
generations.  But  when  once  the  old,  persist- 
ent type  is  broken  up,  the  road  is  open  for 
advances  in  any  useful  direction.  Sometimes 
hybridized  or  crossed  seedlings  show  consider- 
able, or  even  great,  variation  for  weeks;  or 
they  may  show  no  change  in  foliage  or  growth 
from  one  or  the  other  parent  form  until 
nearly  ready  to  bloom  or  bear  fruit,  when 
they  suddenly  change  in  foliage,  growth,  char- 
acter and  general  appearance." 

This  question  of  the  origin  of  new  species 

219 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

has  been  of  absorbing  interest  to  those  scien- 
tists who  have  visited  Mr.  Burbank.  DeVries, 
already  referred  to,  had  for  years  been  devel- 
oping the  theory  of  mutation —elsewhere 
noted  in  connection  with  Mr.  Burbank's  theo- 
ries— but  when  he  came  to  see  the  wonderful 
results  that  Mr.  Burbank  had  achieved  on  so 
great  a  scale  he  was  impelled  to  write  thus: 

"One  of  the  most  marvelous  features  of 
Burbank's  work  is  the  immensity  of  the  num- 
ber of  his  different  seedlings.  This  is  a  power- 
ful principle,  to  reach  in  a  short  time  such 
very  important  variations.  The  rule  is:  Thou- 
sands of  seedlings  for  each  hybrid.  .  .  .  Half 
a  million  lily  bulbs,  a  result  of  one  crossing 
through  thrice  repeated  crossings  and  selec- 
tions, were  entirely  destroyed  after  fifty 
of  the  best  bulbs  were  selected  for  further 
culture.  And  so  I  might  cite  all  kinds  of 
examples. 

"Every  one  understands  that  the  chance  to 
find  something  good  is  greater  if  it  can  be 
made  from  several  hundred  thousand  than 
from  only  a  few  hundreds.  Those  who  wish 
to  compete  with  Burbank  must  accept  this 
principle,  and,  if  this  cannot  be  done,  must 

220 


ON   THE    ORIGIN   OF   NEW  SPECIES 

choose  a  different  way  or  else  choose  species 
which  require  or  admit  a  different  method. 

"Theoretically,  however,  it  is  of  great  im- 
portance to  compare  this  principle  with  the 
method  of  selection  generally  in  vogue  in 
Europe,  where  they  do  not  work  upon  such  a 
large  scale.  In  Europe  the  preference  is  given 
to  repeated  selections,  with  the  idea  that  the 
desired  results  may  be  reached  by  going  the 
regular  road.  If  they  wish  to  increase  the  size 
of  a  flower  to  a  stipulated  limit,  they  do  not 
sow  at  one  time  great  quantities,  as  does  Bur- 
bank,  but  a  great  deal  less  and  pick  out  the 
largest  to  raise  from.  On  the  progeny  raised 
from  that  seed  the  same  process  is  followed, 
and  so  in  four  or  five  years  the  desired  result 
is  reached;  at  least  if  the  desires  are  limited  to 
the  possible  attainment. 

"  The  theoretical  question  now  is :  By  such 
a  repeated  selection  do  we  proceed  faster  than 
by  a  single  sowing  out  upon  a  much  greater 
scale?  With  five  years'  labor  we  have  to  culti- 
vate so  much  fewer  that  the  expense  would 
thereby  be  lessened  in  proportion,  but  against 
this  plan  comes  the  disadvantage  very  nat- 
urally that  the  results  would  only  come  in  so 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

much  longer  time.  ...  I  would  not  put  the 
question  if  it  were  not  of  so  great  importance 
in  the  study  of  etiology.  It  is  very  closely 
connected  with  the  question  whether  one 
must  accept  a  slowly  merging  in  one  another 
of  species,  or  that  one  produces  the  other  by 
jumps.  (The  pith  of  DeVries'  Mutationis 
theorie.)  In  the  first  place,  small  deviation 
would  increase  in  the  course  of  the  genera- 
tions, and  long  series  of  intermediate  forms 
would  connect  the  new  with  the  old.  In  the 
second  case,  however,  the  jump  would  be 
made  at  once,  without  any  intermediates." 

This  was  written  in  California  by  DeVries 
before  he  left  for  his  home  in  Holland,  and 
the  very  night  following  his  visit  to  Mr.  Bur- 
bank.  He  had  long  advocated  the  mutation 
theory  earnestly,  as  elsewhere  noted,  but  in 
the  results  of  Mr.  Burbank's  vast  experiments 
he  was  confronted  with  facts  he  had  never 
known  before.  Hence  the  following: 

"So  long  as  there  were  no  sufficient 
examples  of  this  manner  of  change  and  we  had 
to  rely  upon  spontaneous  varieties  in  horti- 
culture, the  first  proposition  was  the  most 
probable.  It  rested  upon  several  experiences 


ON   THE   ORIGIN   OF   NEW  SPECIES 

in  horticulture  and  garden  culture  in  relation 
to  the  improvement  of  the  species,  and  it  was 
accepted  that  the  species  had  been  produced 
in  a  similar  way.  At  that  time  we  were 
unacquainted  with  the  results  of  sowing  on 
such  a  scale  as  that  of  Burbank,  and  we 
imagined  that  the  results  could  be  reached 
only  by  repeated  selections.  However,  it  is 
clear  that  this  view  would  lose  a  great  deal 
of  its  meaning  if  by  experiments  upon  a  large 
scale  the  variability  could  be  reached  at  once; 
that  which  we  imagined  previously  could  be 
reached  only  by  slow  degrees." 

Dr.  de  Vries  again  mentions  the  fact  that 
the  scale  of  Mr.  Burbank's  work  excels 
everything  that  was  ever  done  in  the  world  t 
before,  and  then  describes  the  production  by 
Mr.  Burbank  of  the  new  species  above  referred 
to, — the  primus  berry,  the  first  fixed  species 
ever  recorded  made  by  man.  As  is  noted 
elsewhere,  Mr.  Burbank  has  produced  the 
mutations  or  changes  which  have  been  consid- 
ered to  have  such  an  important  scientific 
bearing,  at  will. 

Now  that  it  has  been  established,  despite  the 
dictum  of  the  older  scientists,  that  two  variant 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

species  may  be  made  to  combine  and  produce 
a  new  species  wholly  unknown  to  the  world 
before,  who  shall  predict  what  may  be  accom- 
plished for  the  world  along  this  line?  Limit- 
less fields  of  material  progress  are  thus  opened 
for  all  future  plant-breeders,  vast  possibilities 
for  the  adornment  and  the  enrichment  of  the 
earth.  If  a  man  deserve  lasting  credit  who 
causes  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  where  but 
one  grew  before,  what  shall  be  said  of  one 
who,  beyond  all  else  he  has  accomplished,  has 
added  new  life  to  the  vegetable  kingdom  and 
opened  thus  a  thousand  avenues  to  others? 
New  fruits,  as  yet  untasted  by  man,  fruits  of 
the  vine  and  the  shrub  and  the  tree ;  new 
grains,  new  grasses,  new  trees,  new  flowers 
are  to  appear  along  the  paths  he  has  blazed 
through  the  regions  of  the  Unknown. 

In  the  great  depths  of  the  ocean,  the  abyssal 
depths,  some  miles  below  the  surface,  many 
strange  forms  of  life  are  being  brought  to  light 
by  the  deep-sea  dredging  of  the  biologists. 
Among  the  lowest  forms  of  life  is  one  where 
animal  and  vegetable  life  occupy  the  same 
house,  so  to  speak,  and  intermingle  in  most 
curious  fashion.  The  animal  life  lives  upon 


ON   THE    ORIGIN   OF   NEW  SPECIES 

the  plant  life  and  the  plant  life  upon  the 
animal,  each  subsisting  in  certain  measure 
upon  the  waste  of  the  other.  It  is  a  compos- 
ite, so  to  speak, — half  animal,  half  vegetable. 
Looking  to  the  future,  and  taking  into 
account  what  Mr.  Burbank  has  already  accom- 
plished in  the  creation  of  new  life,  will  it  be 
possible,  granting  the  common  protoplasmic 
basis  of  plant  and  animal  life,  eventually  to 
interblend  the  two?  Such  union,  should  it 
come,  must  be  scarcely  more  marvelous  than 
the  union  here  recorded,  effecting  creations 
which  Nature,  in  the  very  amplitude  of  her 
powers,  never  could  have  achieved  alone. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

HOW  MAY  I  DO  IT  TOO ;— BREEDING 

TN  a  certain  negative  sense  the  most  wonder- 
-*-  ful  thing  about  Mr.  Burbank's  work  is  that 
there  are  absolutely  no  secrets.  He  is  as  open 
as  a  book.  He  is  not  only  peculiarly  frank 
and  ingenuous  by  nature,  but  he  carries  the 
same  attributes  into  all  conversations  that 
arise  pertaining  to  his  great  lifework.  He 
is  never  happier  than  when  he  is  doing 
something  for  some  one  else.  Unselfishness 
fits  him  as  a  garment,  but  there  the  figure 
must  change;  for  it  fills  all  his  life.  So 
when  it  comes  to  showing  others  all  that  can 
well  be  shown  of  his  work,  he  is  supremely 
happy. 

The  unfortunate  word  "wizard"  attached 
itself  to  him  when  some  of  his  remarkable 
achievements  first  became  known,  a  term 
which  he  has  always  resented,  as  he  has  always 
deprecated  those  efforts  of  over  -  enthusiastic 
friends  who  have  sought  to  weave  strange 

226 


HOW   MAY   I   DO    IT   TOO;— BREEDING 

mysteries  about  him.  The  marvel  does  not 
lie  in  the  methods,  but  in  the  man. 

At  the  same  time,  there  is  very  much  of 
interest  in  the  details  of  these  methods,  first, 
because  he  has  practically  thrown  aside  all 
precedent  when  it  in  any  way  conflicted  with 
his  own  judgment;  and,  second,  because  he 
has  always  been  not  only  willing,  but  anxious, 
that  others  should  know  all  that  he  knows,  in 
order  that  the  widest  possible  good  might 
come  to  the  world.  Not  that  any  one  may 
hope  to  achieve  results  of  similar  importance 
merely  by  adopting  his  methods, — for  only 
another  such  a  man  will  ever  do  what  he  has 
done, — but  he  opens  the  door  and  asks  any 
one  in  who  has  a  mind  inclined  to  do  service 
to  the  world. 

Mr.  Burbank  thus  speaks  in  general  terms 
of  plant -breeding: 

"The  foundation  principles  of  plant -breed- 
ing are  simple  and  may  be  stated  in  a  few 
words ;  the  practical  application  of  these  prin- 
ciples demands  the  highest  and  most  refined 
efforts  of  which  the  mind  of  man  is  capable, 
and  no  line  of  mental  effort  promises  more 
for  the  elevation,  advancement,  prosperity  and 

227 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

happiness  of  the  whole  human  race.  Plant- 
breeding  is  the  intelligent  application  of  the 
forces  of  the  human  mind  in  guiding  the 
inherent  life -forces  into  useful  directions  by 
crossing  to  make  perturbations  or  variations 
and  new  combinations  of  these  forces,  and  by 
radically  changing  environments;  both  of 
which  produce  somewhat  similar  results,  thus 
giving  a  broader  field  for  selection,  which 
again  is  simply  the  persistent  application  of 
mental  force  to  guide  and  fix  the  perturbed 
life -forces  in  the  desired  channels. 

"Plant -breeding  is  in  its  earliest  infancy. 
Its  possibilities,  and  even  its  fundamental 
principles,  are  understood  but  by  few.  In 
the  past  it  has  been  mostly  dabbling  with 
tremendous  forces,  which  have  been  only 
partially  appreciated,  and  it  has  yet  to  ap- 
proach the  precision  which  we  expect  in  the 
handling  of  steam  or  electricity.  Notwith- 
standing the  occasional  sneers  of  the  ignorant, 
these  silent  forces  embodied  in  plant  -  life  have 
yet  a  part  to  play  in  the  regeneration  of  the 
race  which,  by  comparison,  will  dwarf  into 
insignificance  the  services  which  steam  and 
electricity  have  so  far  given.  Even  un- 

228 


HOW   MAY    I   DO    IT   TOO ;— BREEDING 

conscious  or  half  -  conscious  plant  -  breeding 
has  been  one  of  the  greatest  forces  in  the 
elevation  of  the  race.  The  chemist,  the 
mechanic,  have,  so  to  speak,  domesticated 
some  of  the  forces  of  Nature,  but  the  plant- 
breeder  is  now  learning  to  guide  even  the 
creative  forces  into  new  and  useful  channels. 
This  knowledge  is  a  priceless  legacy,  making 
clear  the  way  for  some  of  the  greatest  benefits 
which  man  has  ever  received  from  any  source 
by  the  study  of  Nature. 

"The  plant  -  breeder,  before  making  com- 
binations, should  with  great  care  select  the 
individual  plants  which  seem  best  adapted  to 
his  purpose,  as  by  this  course  many  years  of 
experiment  and  much  needless  expense  will 
be  avoided. 

"  The  plant  -  breeder  is  an  explorer  into 
the  infinite.  He  will  have  no  time  to  make 
money,  and  his  brain  must  be  clear  and  alert 
in  throwing  aside  fossil  ideas  and  rapidly 
replacing  them  with  living,  throbbing  thought 
followed  by  action.  Then,  and  not  till  then, 
shall  he  create  marvels  of  beauty  and  value  in 
new  expressions  of  materialized  force,  for 
everything  of  value  must  be  produced  by  the 

229 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

intelligent  application  of  the  forces  of  Nature 
which  are  always  awaiting  our  commands. 
The  vast  possibilities  of  plant  -  breeding  can 
hardly  be  estimated.  They  are  not  alone  for 
one  year  or  for  our  own  time  or  race,  but 
are  beneficent  legacies  for  every  man,  woman 
and  child  who  shall  ever  inhabit  the  earth." 

Much  of  the  preliminary  work  in  Mr. 
Burbank's  plant  -  breeding  is  carried  on  at 
Santa  Rosa,  where  his  home  is  located.  He 
lives  here  in  a  small,  old-fashioned,  two -story 
frame  house,  with  an  immaculate  front  yard 
and  four  acres  of  testing -grounds  to  the  rear. 
Near  the  dwelling  is  a  small  greenhouse  where 
certain  tests  are  all  the  time  under  way, 
particularly  those  in  which  the  plants  require 
forcing  in  order  to  hasten  the  work.  In  the 
rear  of  the  greenhouse  stands  his  packing- 
house, the  upper  portion  being  given  up  to 
storage.  Here  are  thousands  of  paper  sacks 
and  boxes  containing  all  manner  of  seeds, 
roots  and  bulbs,  many  of  them  in  the  midst 
of  tests,  many  of  them  finished  products 
priceless  in  value. 

The  open  ground  in  the  rear  of  the  house 
and  barn  is  divided  off  into  beds  of  different 

230 


HOW   MAY   I   DO   IT   TOO ;— BREEDING 

sizes.  Some  of  these  are  perhaps  fifty  by  a 
hundred  feet,  some  four  hundred  by  twenty 
feet;  others,  enclosed  in  frame  borders,  are  from 
six  to  ten  feet  square.  Wire  screens  are  pre- 
pared to  be  adjusted  to  these  smaller  beds  in 
order  to  keep  out  the  birds.  Millions  upon 
millions  of  seeds  are  sown  in  these  plots  of 
ground  every  season,  and,  from  the  plants  that 
grow,  rigid  selection  is  constantly  going  on. 

Workmen  are  always  to  be  seen  about  the 
place,  quiet,  clear-eyed,  intelligent  men,  trained 
men,  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work.  Every 
morning  they  take  their  orders  from  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  for  the  day,  and  carry  them  out  quietly 
but  enthusiastically.  No  man  ever  had  more 
loyal  aids;  they  are  not  only  attentive  to  their 
work,  but  they  are  devotedly  attached  to  the 
quiet  man  who  goes  in  and  out  among  them 
all  so  gently,  but  who,  if  occasion  demands,  can 
give  a  command  no  workman  would  dare 
ignore,  or  deal  out  a  denunciation  of  a  misde- 
meanor exceeding  bitter  to  the  taste.  It  is 
rare,  though,  that  he  ever  gives  rein  to  his 
words  when  satire  is  in  the  saddle,  but  when 
he  does,  the  pace  is  swift  and  the  rider  holds  a 
whip  of  scorpions. 

231 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

The  climate  of  California  is  particularly  fa- 
vorable to  his  work  because  of  the  length  of 
seasons  in  which  tests  may  be  carried  on, — a 
perpetual  season,  in  fact,  for  some  lines  of  the 
work.  On  one  day  you  may  see  one  plot  of 
ground  filled  with  a  mass  of  flaming  poppies: 
at  another  time  it  may  be  white  with  lilies,  or 
it  may  be  crimson  with  the  royal  amaryllis  or 
blue  with  larkspurs,  or  purple  with  some  little 
wild  flower — it  is  never  twice  alike.  When 
one  test  is  ended,  the  plants  are  dug  up  and 
burned  and  the  ground  made  ready  for  the 
next  experiment.  Whenever  the  soil  begins 
to  show  signs  of  running  low  in  nutriment, 
fertilizers  are  used  to  restore  it.  But  all  this  is 
taken  into  account,  for  the  finished  plant  must 
go  to  the  world  equipped  for  general,  normal 
condition  of  soil  and  climate. 

As  has  been  noted  in  the  chapter  on  the 
general  methods,  breeding  and  selection  are 
the  basic  facts  in  all  this  work.  When  the 
flowers  of  a  given  test  are  in  full  blossom  the 
work  of  pollenation  begins.  For  this  work, 
when  it  presents  only  general  problems,  Mr. 
Burbank  relies  almost  entirely  upon  his  finger- 
tips. He  does  not  recommend  that  an  ama- 


HOW   MAY   I   DO   IT   TOO ;— BREEDING 

teur  should  so  restrict  himself,  but  suggests 
various  instruments:  A  pair  of  jeweler's  for- 
ceps, or  pincers,  a  jeweler's  eyeglass,  a  small 
but  powerful  microscope,  a  sharp  knife,  a  saucer 
for  holding  the  pollen,  a  soft  brush  for  sifting 
or  dusting  the  pollen  from  the  saucer  to  the 
stigma  of  the  plant  to  be  fertilized. 

Whenever  it  is  necessary,  he  makes  use  of 
any  or  all  of  these,  or  of  other  devices  of  his 
own  making,  but  chiefly  he  pollenates  by 
securing  the  pollen  upon  a  watch-crystal  and 
placing  it  upon  the  stigma  with  his  finger-tips. 
The  main  object  is  to  see  that  the  pollen  from 
the  one  flower  gets  onto  the  stigma  of  the 
other  flower.  The  fertilizing,  or  fructifying, 
Nature  will  do  herself  if  man  has  done  his 
work  well. 

Sometimes  there  are  flowers  which  Nature 
has  in  her  own  good  ways  made  extremely 
difficult  to  pollenate,  flowers  for  which  strange 
devices  and  curious  contrivances  and  traps  are 
prepared  by  Nature  in  order  to  get  certain  in- 
sects,— and  only  those, — to  enter  the  flower 
at  just  the  right  time  and  there  to  hold  them 
captive  until  they  deposit  the  pollen  they  have 
gathered  from  another  flower.  Of  such  plants 

233 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

as  these  Mr.  Burbank  makes  a  very  careful 
study,  supplementing  Nature  where  necessary, 
tenderly  outwitting  her,  if  needs  be.  Some- 
times he  cuts  away  the  petals,  stamens  and 
sepals  entirely,  so  as  to  form  an  unattractive 
and  inhospitable  place  for  the  insects  in  order 
that  they  may  be  kept  out  entirely.  Strategem 
plays  no  unimportant  part  in  this  work.  Now 
and  again  in  order  to  produce  a  given  result, 
fully  nine -tenths  of  the  flower  buds  will  be 
cut  away  in  order  to  force  the  other  one -tenth 
to  produce  a  stronger  development. 

But  Mr.  Burbank  does  not  recommend  any 
difficult  problems  for  the  amateur;  rather,  he 
insists  on  the  very  simplest  ones  to  begin  with. 
He  places  confidence,  the  confidence  which 
comes  from  having  accomplished  something, 
as  the  initial  essential.  Failure,  he  says,  leads 
to  disappointment,  and  disappointment  to 
discouragement,  and  discouragement  is  own 
cousin  to  despair.  So  he  says:  Confidence 
born  of  success  is  imperative  in  amateur  plant- 
breeding. 

And  to  this  end  he  urges  taking  up  a  single 
flower  to  begin  with,  never  a  composite  one. 
He  recommends  for  crossing,  the  sweet  peas, 

234 


HOW    MAY    I    DO    IT   TOO ;— BREEDING 

geraniums,  petunias,  Japanese  pinks  or  violets. 
These  will  do  to  begin  on,  though  there  are 
many  others.  He  recommends  for  selection 
alone,  the  pansy  and  the  sweet  pea  as  offering 
opportunities  of  unusual  promise.  Of  course 
all  of  the  flowers  mentioned,  and  in  fact  every 
flower  whose  life  is  to  be  changed  in  any 
respect,  must  come  under  the  most  rigid 
selection,  the  eternal  choosing  of  the  best. 

When  a  certain  flower,  say  a  sweet  pea,  has 
been  decided  on,  the  pollen  from  one  of  the 
two  that  are  going  to  be  crossed  in  order  to 
give  birth  to  a  third  that,  it  is  hoped,  shall  be 
better  than  either  parent,  is  gathered  upon  a 
little  saucer  or  a  watch-crystal,  taken  to  the 
flower  which  has  been  chosen  as  a  mate,  and 
dusted  down  upon  its  stigma.  Then  this  latter 
flower  should  be  isolated  from  its  fellows  and 
guarded  carefully.  A  paper  tag  should  be 
fastened  to  it  for  identification.  Mr.  Burbank 
says  to  watch  the  bees,  and  when  they  are  first 
a -wing  upon  their  day's  work,  be  sure  the 
flowers  are  ready  to  be  pollenated. 

He  says  that  it  is  wholly  unnecessary  in  or- 
dinary plant-breeding  to  attempt  to  cover  the 
flower  with  a  screen  of  tissue  paper  or  gauze. 

235 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

This  method  has  been  followed  by  some  in  the 
belief  that  they  were  thereby  preventing  in- 
sects from  coming  in  and  destroying  the 
pollenating,  but  he  holds  that,  save  in  some 
particular  cases,  the  act  is  not  only  absurd 
but  absolutely  harmful  and  more  than  likely 
so  to  injure  the  flower  by  keeping  light  and 
air  away  from  it  as  to  frustrate  the  very  end 
aimed  at.  If  the  pollenating  has  been  thorough, 
Nature  may  safely  be  left  to  do  the  rest. 

Great  care  also  should  be  exercised  in  sav- 
ing the  seeds  of  the  plants  under  test.  He 
recommends  air-tight  glass  jars  for  the  pur- 
pose. The  jars  should  be  kept  in  some  secure 
place — it  is  beyond  the  power  of  any  mind  to 
say  how  precious  these  seeds  may  prove  to  be. 

From  the  plants  that  grow  from  the  new 
seeds  one  only  should  be  chosen,  the  very  best 
of  all,  the  one  which  is  the  thriftiest,  the  best 
bearing,  the  nearest  to  the  ideal.  The  seeds 
from  this  one  plant  should  be  in  turn  planted, 
and  then  from  a  very  few  of  the  very  best 
plants  enough  plants  saved  out  to  insure  a 
somewhat  larger  crop  for  the  next  generation. 
Then  from  this  larger  generation  only  the 
very  best  one  should  be  saved.  Mr.  Burbank 

236 


HOW   MAY   I   DO    IT   TOO ;— BREEDING 

lays  special  stress  upon  this, — to  save  only  one 
and  that  the  very  best  of  all;  no  matter  if 
there  be  a  hundred  plants  or  a  thousand,  save 
only  the  very  best. 

Naturally  one  who  has  been  long  expert  at 
the  work  will  be  able  easily  to  choose  a  good 
many  plants  of  relatively  the  same  value  in 
order  to  secure  quicker  results  as  a  test  pro- 
ceeds ;  but,  even  then,  when  the  final  test  of 
all  comes,  there  must  remain  but  one  as  the 
basis  of  the  world's  stock. 

So  on  and  on  from  year  to  year  the  work 
should  go,  the  best  plant  of  each  succeeding 
generation  approaching  nearer  the  end  sought 
until,  at  last,  a  flower  is  produced  which 
reaches,  which  may  indeed  surpass,  the  model 
set  before  the  mind. 

One  may  have,  for  example,  a  certain  variety 
of  sweet  peas  which  are  not  exactly  to  one's 
liking, — make  them  over  to  suit  you.  If  the 
stems  are  too  long,  shorten  them.  If  they  are 
too  short,  lengthen  them.  If  the  blossom  is 
not  large  enough,  make  it  larger.  If  the  color 
is  pink  and  you  want  it  red,  teach  it  to  take  on 
the  crimson  hue.  Pick  out  beforehand,  is  Mr. 
Burbank's  advice,  the  particular  improvement 

237 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

you  wish.  Fix  this  firmly  in  your  mind,  and 
constantly  select  with  this  end  in  view.  And 
be  not  led  astray  from  it  by  some  other  inter- 
esting manifestation  of  the  flower;  or,  if  some- 
thing unusual  does  develop,  side-track  this 
for  further  test,  and  keep  on  the  main  track, 
doing  all  faithfully,  consistently,  enthusiasti- 
cally, and  the  desired  end  will  come.  It  must 
be  ever  borne  in  mind  that  only  those  plants 
must  be  kept  which  are  pressing  onward 
toward  the  ideal.  All  the  rest  must  be 
destroyed,  or  else  they  will  be  liable  to  mix 
with  the  ones  under  test  and  thus  lower  the 
standard. 

Naturally,  the  more  extensive  botanical  and 
historical  knowledge  one  has  of  a  given  plant 
under  experiment,  the  better, — its  habits,  its 
former  environment,  its  needs  as  to  soil, 
amount  of  moisture,  preference  for  sunshine  or 
shade,  and  so  on,  its  complete  life  history. 

For  crossing  first  and  then  selection,  he 
places  the  violet  near  the  head  of  the  list  as 
the  flower  now  offering  to  the  amateur  one  of 
the  finest  fields  for  experimentation.  It  is 
somewhat  more  difficult  to  cross  than  some  of 
the  others,  but  still,  with  a  little  patience,  may 

238 


HOW   MAY    I   DO    IT   TOO ;— BREEDING 

be  mastered.  He  says  that  remarkable  results 
await  the  plant  -  breeder  in  producing  better 
violets — larger,  deeper  in  tone,  different  in 
color,  stronger  in  perfume. 

Varieties  of  pansies  are  already  so  numerous 
that  he  would  waste  no  time  in  trying  to 
make  new  combinations  of  them,  though  they 
offer  a  fascinating  field  for  selection,  in  mak- 
ing them  larger,  more  intense  in  color,  more 
velvety  in  texture. 

Another  point  on  which  Mr.  Burbank  lays 
emphasis  is  that  the  beginner  should  at  the 
outset  treat  one  flower  alone,  not  spread  out 
too  much.  Later  on,  when  he  has  become 
familiar  with  the  work,  he  may  have  as  many 
varieties  under  test  as  he  may  have  time  to 
care  for;  but,  at  first,  deal  with  but  one. 
While  the  general  work  is  simple  in  its  charac- 
ter, there  are  always  many  minor  problems 
which  will  come  up  for  solution,  and  the  more 
numerous  the  problems  the  less  likelihood  of 
the  initial  success  upon  which  he  places  so 
much  emphasis,  a  little  encouragement  at  the 
outset  is  of  paramount  importance.  To  be 
able  to  show  your  friend  a  flower  which  you 
by  your  own  skill  and  patience  have  re- 

239 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

created,  presenting  certain  features  which  this 
particular  flower  never  before  possessed,  is  not 
only  something  for  mutual  pleasure  but  a 
distinct  floral  triumph.  It  may  be,  indeed, 
you  have  set  the  pace  for  the  whole  world. 
But  crossing  old  plants  or  creating  new  ones 
is  not  child's  play.  To  do  it  successfully 
requires  intelligent  effort,  the  highest  judg- 
ment, the  soundest  common  sense,  patience  of 
no  ordinary  type.  The  man  who  has  a  small 
plot  of  ground, —  it  may  be  only  a  few  square 
feet  of  ground  in  a  cooped  -  up  city  back  yard, 
or,  indeed,  it  may  be  he  is  driven  to  a  few  feet 
of  earth  upon  his  roof  for  his  gardening,— 
usually  does  not  have  much  spare  time  for 
such  work,  even  if  he  has  a  love  for  flowers 
and  loves  to  have  them  upon  his  table,  but 
even  this  circumscribed  man  may  accomplish 
some  remarkable  results.  If  he  has  a  larger 
garden  in  the  country  town  or  suburb,  or  if  he 
be  fortunate  enough  to  be  one  of  that  class  of 
well-to-do  people  who  are  learning  in  the 
dear  school  of  experience  that,  with  all  its 
splendid  attractions,  the  city  palace  is  sur- 
passed in  interest  by  the  country  estate,  by 
so  much  will  the  scope  be  broadened  because 

240 


HOW   MAY   I   DO   IT   TOO ;— BREEDING 

of  larger  facilities  for  carrying  on  the  experi- 
ments. 

For  those  who  have  large  country  places 
and  who  have  ample  hothouse  facilities,  Mr. 
Burbank  recommends,  for  example,  for  begin- 
ning work  under  glass,  begonias,  cinerarias  and 
primroses,  though  there  are  very  many  others 
which  may  be  used.  These  will,  however,  give 
an  opportunity  for  initial  practice  in  breeding 
and  selection  likely  to  bring  out  satisfactory 
results.  Here,  too,  he  would  pick  out  one 
plant  and  stick  to  it,  following  it  for  a  number 
of  years  if  needs  be.  As  the  work  progresses, 
one's  own  judgment  will  be  the  better  guide 
as  to  just  how  soon  to  begin  work  on  another 
flower,  though  the  one  first  chosen  should 
constitute  the  major  study. 

Many  opportunities  are  presented,  too,  for 
vegetable -breeding.  In  passing,  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  by  those  who  have  a  desire  to 
combine  thrift  with  pleasure,  that  no  incon- 
siderable increase  in  income  to  a  man  or 
woman  of  moderate  means  may  come  from  the 
creation  of  new  and  improved  forms  of  floral 
and  vegetable  life.  In  order,  of  course,  to 
prepare  a  new  flower  or  a  new  vegetable  for 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

the  market,  time  enough  must  be  allowed 
thoroughly  to  test  it  so  that  it  will  not  revert 
to  some  former  inferior  stage.  In  general,  Mr. 
Eurbank  says  that  six  or  eight  generations 
of  persistence  in  a  given  trait  usually  are  suf- 
ficient to  fix  that  trait,  and  to  warrant  one  in 
announcing  a  new  flower  and  offering  it  for 
sale  from  one's  own  gardens  or  to  some  of  the 
great  seedsmen  or  florists. 

Among  the  vegetables,  potatoes  and  to- 
matoes are  both  very  easy  to  work  upon,  and 
excellent  results  may  be  looked  for,  both  in 
the  improvement  of  size,  flavor  and  hardiness. 
Corn  of  all  varieties,  though  particularly  the 
sweet  corns,  he  recommends.  Squashes  are 
more  difficult  to  cross  satisfactorily,  as  well  as 
melons,  though  they  are  apt  to  bring  very 
satisfactory  results.  Considerable  difficulty  will 
be  experienced  by  the  beginner  in  working  on 
peas  and  beans,  but,  if  the  work  is  successfully 
done,  remarkable  results  are  likely  to  follow. 
He  does  not  think  it  worth  while  to  try  to 
improve  such  vegetables  as  cauliflower,  lettuce 
and  cabbages  by  crossing,  because  they  are 
most  excellent  as  they  are,  and  to  cross  them 
might  easily  result  in  so  breaking  up  their  old 


HOW   MAY    I    DO    IT   TOO ;— BREEDING 

life  habits  and  forming  new  ones  as  to  result 
in  vastly  more  harm  than  good. 

This  he  constantly  guards  against  in  his  own 
work, —  his  aim  is  always  to  make  things 
better  than  they  ever  were  before.  He  does, 
however,  heartily  encourage  selection,  choosing 
the  best  plant  of  a  given  vegetable  and,  from 
year  to  year,  choosing  the  best  of  its  plants 
in  turn,  thereby  steadily  carrying  it  upward. 
He  suggests  here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  flowers, 
that  one  choose  some  one  particular  vegetable 
which  he  thinks  should  be  improved — one 
that  needs  to  be  larger,  or  better-looking,  or 
thriftier,  or  finer  in  quality,  and  work  on  and 
on  with  it,  as  with  the  flowers,  until  the  end 
desired  is  reached. 

Mr.  Burbank  urges  the  work  of  plant- 
breeding  upon  clerks,  upon  laboring  men, 
business  men,  professional  men,  especially  girls 
and  women, — upon  any  man  or  woman  who 
would  like  to  take  a  hand  in  making  the  earth 
a  more  beautiful  place  in  which  to  live. 

He  points  out  the  fact  that  results  of  sur- 
passing importance  may  come  to  the  hand  of 
any  man  who  takes  up  this  work  primarily  as  a 
pastime  or  as  a  means  of  health.  No  man  can 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

tell  how  a  given  experiment  may  end.  Some- 
times, even  in  his  own  work,  carried  on  upon 
so  vast  a  scale  and  with  apparently  a  command 
of  every  possible  avenue  of  knowledge  leading 
up  to  a  given  test,  a  plant  will  now  and  then 
burst  forth  in  some  new  and  wholly  unex- 
pected direction  and  accomplish  marvelous 
results.  It  is  much  as  though  the  spirit  of  the 
plant  had  been  waiting  in  embryo  all  these 
years  for  some  one  to  bring  it  forth  to  life. 
He  lays  special  stress,  too,  upon  the  fascina- 
tion of  the  work.  Here  is  a  man  who  has 
been  engaged  in  plant-breeding  for  nearly 
forty  years,  who  has  created  more  new  forms 
of  plant  life  than  any  other  man  who  has  ever 
lived,  who  has  been  what  one  might  almost 
call  surfeited  by  successes,  but  who  takes  up 
each  new  experiment  with  as  great  a  zest  as 
ever,  whose  eye  sparkles  and  whose  face  glows 
over  a  new  development  or  the  solution  of  a 
problem  as  vividly  as  it  did  when  he  began 
the  work  many  years  ago.  For  a  man  who  is 
accustomed  to  the  cold  hard  facts  of  the 
every-day,  dealing  with  problems  whose  chief 
factors  are  dollars  and  cents,  — for  such  a  man 
to  be  able  to  take  a  life  and  train  it  into  new 

244 


Leaves  of  blackberry  hybrid,  all  grown  from  seed  of  one  plant, 
showing  the  remarkable  variation 


HOW   MAY   I   DO    IT   TOO ;— BREEDING 

ways,  to  change  its  habits,  to  break  up  old 
traits,  to  make  it  more  beautiful  and  more 
useful, — in  a  word,  to  handle  and  mold  it  as 
the  potter  his  clay, — all  this  has  in  it  a  fasci- 
nation beyond  the  conception  of  one  who  has 
never  entered  upon  such  a  course. 

Again  he  makes  this  point:  That  plant- 
breeding  for  the  amateur  is  one  of  the  most 
important  aids  to  health.  Plant-breeding  and 
selection  can  never  be  carried  on  at  their  best 
save  in  the  open.  To  be  sure,  there  are  tests 
which  may  be  begun,  and  some  which  may 
largely  be  carried  on,  in  the  winter  months 
indoors,  and  these  have  their  own  peculiar 
interest,  but  there  is  a  large  part  of  the  year 
in  any  temperate  climate,  and  almost  the 
entire  year  in  some  portions  of  the  country, 
where  the  work  of  plant -breeding  can  be 
carried  on  out-of-doors.  It  is  in  this  outdoor 
life  that  Mr.  Burbank  sees  one  of  the  greatest 
goods  that  can  possibly  come  to  a  man  com- 
pelled for  a  great  portion  of  his  time  to  an 
indoor  life.  The  plant-breeder,  he  maintains, 
should  have  neither  time  nor  inclination  to 
be  sick. 

Highest  of  all  his  reasons  for  urging  plant- 

245 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

breeding  upon  all  people  is  its  distinct  moral 
influence. 

No  man,  he  holds,  can  be  a  successful  plant- 
breeder  and  practice  deceit.  He  stands  face  to 
face  with  Nature,  who  never  lies.  No  man,  as 
he  puts  it,  can  come  close  to  the  heart  of 
Nature  and  see  how  absolute  is  her  honesty, 
never  for  a  moment  deviating  a  hair's  breadth 
from  the  line  of  truth,  and  not  be  made  a 
more  honest  man  for  the  contact.  In  short, 
beyond  all  spirit  of  ethics,  a  man,  he  puts  it, 
must  be  an  honest  man  or  he  will  never 
succeed  at  plant-breeding; — if  he  is  not  an 
honest  man  when  he  begins,  Nature  will 
make  him  so  or  drive  him  out  of  it. 

So  there  are  five  cardinal  points  in  Mr. 
Burbank's  argument  for  the  extension  of  plant- 
breeding  among  people  of  all  classes: 

1.  The  possibilities  in  the  creation  of  new 
flowers  and  vegetables  of  surpassing  value. 

2.  The  intense  fascination  of  the  work,  not 
only    giving     delight     but    broadening     and 
deepening  any  life  which  takes  it  up. 

3.  The  opportunity  for   the   production   of 
flowers   and    vegetables   which   shall    have   a 
distinct  commercial  value. 

246 


HOW   MAY   I   DO   IT  TOO ;— BREEDING 

4.  Its   hygienic   bearing    upon    those    who 
wish  to  maintain  the  good  health  they  already 
have   and   upon   those   who   are   seeking  the 
health  they  may  sadly  need. 

5.  The   absolute  necessity  for  devotion  to 
truth — the  breeding  of  honesty. 

I  saw  one  day  on  a  piece  of  paper  which  a 
friend  had  pinned  to  the  wall  in  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  little  sitting-room  this  quotation  from 
his  favorite  author,  Emerson,  singularly  appro- 
priate to  such  a  man,  but  which  any  man  who 
makes  a  new  flower  may  some  day  be  able  to 
take  to  himself: 

"If  a  man  write  a  better  book,  preach  a 
better  sermon  or  make  a  better  mouse -trap 
than  his  neighbor,  though  he  build  his  home 
in  the  wilderness,  the  world  will  make  a 
beaten  path  to  his  door." 


247 


CHAPTER  XV 

HOW  MAY  I   DO  IT,  TOO;  — GRAFTING 

TTE  who  is  fortunate  enough  to  stand  some 
-"--*•  midsummer  day  on  the  summit  of  the 
Macayamas,  an  inner  spur  of  the  great  Coast 
range,  hard  by  the  Pacific  and  skirting  the 
beautiful  Sonoma  valley,  will  look  out  upon  a 
scene  of  surpassing  interest.  In  the  foreground 
lies  the  fertile  valley,  with  the  fruit  of  its 
hundreds  of  ranches  ripening  in  the  mellow 
sunshine,  pears  and  peaches,  apricots  and 
apples,  plums  and  prunes  and  cherries,  with 
here  and  there  great  vineyards  heavy  with 
grapes,  the  whole  broken  in  upon  by  wide 
green  fields  of  hops  and  broader  stretches  of 
yellow  wheat,  with  the  reapers  already  at  their 
work.  Through  the  valley  flows  the  winding 
Russian  river,  emptying  at  last  through  a  pass 
in  the  mountains  into  the  Pacific  at  the  point 
where  the  Russians  came  down  in  the  early 
days  and  sought  to  fix  their  flag  upon  Spanish 
soil ;  while  far  through  the  distance,  across  the 

248 


HOW    MAY   I   DO    IT,  TOO;— GRAFTING 

green  and  yellow  valley,  rise  the  white  peaks 
of  the  high  Sierras  two  hundred  miles  away, 
their  summits  forever  clothed  in  snow,  keeping 
watch  above  their  lower  mountain  wards  and 
over  the  fair  valley  below.  Just  across  the 
valley  over  the  roof-tops  of  Santa  Rosa  you 
may  see  the  low  hills  of  Sebastopol ; —  there 
lie  the  acres  which  have  given  scope  for  the 
great  work  of  Mr.  Burbank.  Here  is  the 
culmination  of  the  tests,  the  great  proving 
grounds  where  the  final  standard  is  set  up, 
alongside  of  which  the  flower  or  fruit  must 
measure  itself  or  be  doomed  to  death. 

On  these  grounds,  now  some  fifteen  acres  in 
extent,  the  grafting  of  trees  and  the  raising  of 
seedlings  goes  on  from  year  to  year,  as  well 
as  very  much  extensive  work  in  pollenating 
and  selection.  And  the  scale  on  which  these 
things  are  carried  forward  is  larger  than  any 
ever  before  known  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

A  sunny,  beautiful  spot  it  is,  far  from  city 
sounds  and  strifes,  lying  softly  asleep  in  the 
golden  sunshine  with  the  fair  hills  beyond, 
purple  or  crimson  or  yellow  or  white  as  the 
summer  flowers  come  on  in  never-ending 
procession.  Asleep  it  is,  and  yet  awake, 

249 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

insistently,  aggressively  awake,  for  here  from 
dawn  to  dark  a  life  of  the  most  tense  activity 
is  lived  where  things  must  be  done  with  the 
regularity  of  a  machine  and  the  persistence  of 
the  sun  in  its  course.  Here  the  field  experi- 
ments are  carried  on,  and  here  Mr.  Burbank 
does  his  largest  work.  Flowers  are  raised  here 
by  the  hundred  thousand,  by  the  half  million 
indeed,  waiting  the  eye  of  the  master  of  them 
all  who  shall  say  what  one  out  of  all  their  vast 
number  shall  be  saved.  Here  seeds  of  all 
manner  of  fruits  are  planted  by  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  if  needs  be,  apples,  pears,  peaches, 
quinces,  nectarines,  plums,  prunes, —  a  list  as 
long  as  the  list  of  the  world's  best  known 
fruits.  Here  are  long  rows  of  young  trees, 
hardly  saplings  in  size,  from  two  to  five  years 
old  and  from  three  to  five  feet  in  height, 
standing  in  serried  rows  so  close  to  one  an- 
other that  the  tiny  branches  intertwine.  They 
will  all  be  scrutinized  one  of  these  days,  and 
the  best  of  them  all,  one  perhaps  out  of  a 
hundred  thousand,  will  be  saved.  The  rest 
will  be  dug  up  and  burned  in  great  brush 
heaps.  Sometimes  there  have  been  as  many  as 
fourteen  of  these  huge  heaps,  comprising  from 

250 


HOW   MAY   I   DO   IT,  TOO;— GRAFTING 

sixty  to  seventy  thousand  shrubs  or  young 
trees  in  a  single  test  burned  up  in  a  single  day, 
and  simply  because  they  did  not  come  up 
to  the  standard  set  for  them. 

Here  and  there  after  such  a  slaughter  you 
may  see  a  tiny  little  tree,  perhaps  leafless  and 
certainly  to  the  eye  of  the  layman  presenting 
no  signs  of  superiority.  But  it  bears  a  curious 
little  badge,  a  white  streamer  of  cloth  tied 
about  its  middle,  the  sign  that  henceforth 
it  is  sacred, — it  is  the  one  best  one  of  the 
thousands. 

Some  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  work 
may  be  obtained  from  the  following  figures, 
illustrating  the  average  number  of  fruits  under 
test  at  a  given  time  at  Sebastopol  from  year 
to  year : 

Three  hundred  thousand  distinct  varieties 
of  plums,  different  in  foliage,  in  form  of  fruit, 
in  shipping,  keeping  and  canning  qualities, 
sixty  thousand  peaches  and  nectarines,  five  to 
six  thousand  almonds,  two  thousand  cherries, 
two  thousand  pears,  one  thousand  grapes, 
three  thousand  apples,  one  thousand  two 
hundred  quinces,  five  thousand  walnuts,  five 
thousand  chestnuts,  five  to  six  thousand  berries 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

of  various  kinds,  with  many  thousands  of 
other  fruits,  flowers  and  vegetables. 

The  grafting  done  at  Sebastopol,  like  all  the 
work  carried  on  there,  is  on  a  large  scale.  In  a 
single  grafting  season,  which  comprises  about 
ninety  working  days,  more  than  a  hundred 
thousand  grafts  will  be  set,  covering  a  wide 
variety  of  experiments  going  forward  at  the 
same  time  with  many  different  kinds  of  fruits. 
From  these  grafts  will  grow  in  a  single  season 
material  for  nearly  ten  million  additional 
grafts.  Some  years  since,  a  company  was 
formed  in  California  whose  entire  business  was 
the  making  of  grafts  from  one  of  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  choicest  plums,  selling  the  grafts  to 
nurserymen  and  fruit-growers  all  over  the 
world. 

At  various  points  throughout  the  grafting 
section  of  the  grounds  young  men  may  be 
seen  perched  on  the  tops  of  ladders  in  the 
midst  of  the  branches  of  the  trees  upon  which 
the  grafts  are  set.  In  this,  as  in  the  case  of 
flowers  and  vegetables,  Mr.  Burbank  stands 
ready  with  suggestions  for  those  who  wish  to 
take  up  this  branch  of  the  work. 

From   the   young    trees   which   have   been 

252 


.p 


HOW   MAY    I   DO    IT,  TOO;— GRAFTING 

saved  out  of  the  burnings  in  the  different  tests 
branches  are  cut  away,  and  each  branch,  little 
more  than  a  twig  in  size,  not  more  than  half 
as  thick  as  the  little  finger,  is  cut  up  into 
pieces  about  two  inches  long,  each  piece,  tech- 
nically called  a  cion,  bearing  two  to  three 
buds.  The  tops  and  side  branches  of  the  tree 
which  is  to  serve  as  the  host  for  all  the  many 
grafts  must  be  cut  away,  leaving  the  tree  pre- 
senting a  peculiarly  grotesque  appearance.  In 
the  end  of  each  branch  the  pieces  of  the  twigs 
from  the  little  trees  under  test  are  to  be 
placed.  These  host,  or  parent,  trees  are  used 
from  year  to  year,  sometimes  a  single  tree 
bearing  five  hundred  distinct  kinds  of  grafts  at 
the  same  time. 

The  workman  who  is  grafting  is  equipped 
with  a  sharp  pruning-knife,  a  saw  to  cut  away 
the  upper  branches,  a  pot  of  melted  wax,  a 
brush  and  some  pieces  of  white  cloth.  In  the 
end  of  the  sawed-off  branch  of  the  parent  tree 
he  cuts  a  slit  with  his  knife.  He  has  made  one 
end  of  the  two  tiny  grafts  he  holds  wedge- 
shaped.  One  of  the  grafts  he  holds  in  his 
mouth,  while  he  forces  the  wedge  of  the  other 
down  into  the  slit.  Then  the  second  graft  is 

253 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

stuck  in  place,  sometimes  three  or  even  four 
to  a  single  branch,  the  pot  of  melted  wax  is 
lifted  up,  the  branch  end  and  the  graft  are 
thickly  spread  with  it,  a  white  cloth  is  wound 
about  the  joint — the  union  is  complete;  and 
rapidly  the  sap  of  the  old  tree  begins  sending 
its  life-forces  up  through  the  new  life  growing 
upon  it.  The  graft  grows  on  and  on  until  it  is 
two  or  possibly  three  seasons  old;  then  it  puts 
out  its  own  buds  and  flowers,  bears  its  own 
fruit,  wholly  different  it  may  be  from  any 
other  fruit  growing  upon  the  other  branches. 

The  union  of  the  graft  and  the  parent  tree 
will  not  be  complete  unless  the  cambium  of 
the  two  is  merged.  This  cambium  is  a  layer  of 
viscid,  mucilaginous  substance  composed  of 
cells,  lying  between  the  bark  and  the  wood 
of  the  tree  and  from  which  both  derive  their 
growth.  Mr.  Burbank  calls  it  a  predigested 
food,  for  the  nourishment  of  the  new  graft. 

Sometimes  the  workman  makes  a  long 
slanting  cut  instead  of  cutting  the  branch  off 
square  and  makes  a  similar  cut  in  the  graft. 
Two  slits  are  then  made  in  each,  and  the 
tongues  of  the  graft  thus  formed  are  forced 
down  into  the  slits  of  the  branch. 

254 


HOW    MAY    I    DO    IT,  TOO;— GRAFTING 

Many  other  kinds  of  grafts  are  in  use  by 
horticulturists,  but  Mr.  Burbank  considers 
these  two  quite  sufficient.  Budding,  which  is 
the  placing  of  the  bud  of  the  graft  or  cion 
underneath  the  bark  of  the  parent  or  host 
tree,  he  very  seldom  uses. 

Some  years  since,  a  profound  discussion  was 
carried  on  in  England  over  grafting,  the  oppo- 
nents of  it  claiming  that  it  was  always  a  make- 
shift, often  a  fraud;  that  it  was,  in  effect,  only 
a  kind  of  adulteration;  that  any  fruit  tree  that 
would  not  succeed  on  its  own  roots  should  go 
to  the  rubbish  heap;  that  grafted  trees  are 
coddled,  while  own  -  rooted  '  trees  are  in  all 
ways  infinitely  better,  healthier  and  longer- 
lived.  It  seems  quite  enough  to  say  in  this 
connection  that  the  man  who  has  carried  on 
the  blending  of  tree  and  cion  upon  a  scale  of 
greater  extent  than  any  other  man  finds  graft- 
ing not  only  eminently  successful  but  impera- 
tive. One  single  series  of  experiments  carried 
on  for  so  many  years  and  on  so  vast  a  scale  as 
Mr.  Burbank's  experiments  is  sufficient  to  dis- 
prove many  theories  and  to  overturn  many 
conclusions. 

But  there  remains  something  else  of  still 

255 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

greater  importance, — the  fruit  of  this  graft 
must  be  superior  to  all  fruits  of  its  kind  which 
have  preceded  it,  more  nutritious,  more  deli- 
cious to  the  taste,  more  attractive  to  the  eye, 
safer  to  ship  than  any  of  its  forbears.  All 
these  points  must  be  settled,  together  with 
other  important  points  as  to  hardiness  and 
yielding  qualities,  and  adaptability  to  various 
soils  and  climates  before  the  new  fruit  can  be 
given  to  the  world.  The  demands  constantly 
made  upon  him  in  the  production  of  a  new 
fruit  are  very  many  and  of  great  insistence 
before  the  fruit  or  flower  has  been  brought 
up  to  his  ideal. 

Some  strange  things  happen  in  the  midst  of 
this  grafting,  and  some  of  these,  or  others 
quite  as  curious,  may  happen  to  any  one  who 
takes  up  this  peculiarly  fascinating  branch  of 
plant-breeding.  Sometimes  in  Mr.  Burbank's 
experience  the  graft  will  influence  the  tree 
upon  which  it  is  grafted,  increasing  its  foliage, 
strengthening  its  roots,  and  otherwise  making 
it  more  thrifty.  He  grafted  a  Japanese  pear, 
for  example,  upon  a  Bartlett  pear,  and  while 
the  graft  went  forward,  producing  the  Japan- 
ese pear  fruit,  the  parent  pear  tree  bearing  its 

256 


HOW   MAY    I   DO    IT,  TOO ;— GRAFHNG 

customary  Bartlett  pears,  the  parent  tree  soon 
took  on  a  greatly  increased  vigor.  Sometimes 
the  union  of  the  graft  and  the  tree  will  be 
complete,  but,  as  he  puts  it,  in  the  great  stress 
of  unusual  drought  or  fruiting  the  grafted  por- 
tion will  separate  again,  later,  and  entirely  fall 
off.  Curious  results  are  seen  in  some  crosses, 
as,  for  example,  some  plum  -  almond  crosses 
where  there  was  every  possible  variation  in  the 
flowers, — some  of  them  having  all  stamens 
and  no  pistils,  some  having  many  petals,  some 
having  no  petals,  some  never  opening  like 
normal  flowers  at  all,  some  having  no  stamens 
but  only  pistils.  Sometimes  a  cross  of  a  peach 
and  an  almond  will  produce  a  tree  as  large  as 
ten  peach  trees  or  almond  trees  of  the  same 
age.  Sometimes  the  precise  opposite  will  be  the 
case.  Now  and  then  the  graft  grows  up  thrift- 
ily and  bears  fruit,  and  its  seeds  are  planted 
with  the  result  that  none  will  grow.  Mr. 
Burbank  says  that  a  certain  character,  or  char- 
acteristic, may  lie  latent  through  many  gene- 
rations, or  even  centuries,  and  then  appear  just 
when  the  right  cross  is  made  to  bring  it  out. 

But   probably   the   most   mysterious   thing 
that  has  ever  happened,  in  some  ways  at  least, 

257 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

in  all  his  grafting  tests  was  that  of  a  union  of 
two  plums,  one  brought  over  from  France, 
there  being  no  other  plum  like  it  in  the  new 
world,  the  other  the  Kelsey  plum,  well  known 
in  western  America.  The  graft  was  attached 
to  the  parent  tree,  the  Kelsey,  in  the  usual 
way,  but,  when  blooming  time  came,  the  graft, 
though  growing  heartily,  put  forth  no  blos- 
soms. It  did,  however,  a  still  stranger  thing 
than  this,  one  of  the  strangest  in  all  plant 
history, — it  changed  the  entire  life  of  the  par- 
ent,— a  thing  hinted  at  by  Darwin  as  being  in 
the  list  of  possibilities  but  never  known  before. 
The  tree,  by  some  strange  influence  born  of 
the  grafting,  completely  changed  its  own  life, 
or,  at  least,  so  changed  it  that  its  own  seeds 
in  turn  developed  the  French  plum.  It  thus 
formed  in  the  tree  itself  a  cross  between  two 
trees  that  had  never  been  crossed  before,  the 
life  of  the  one  entering  into  and  transforming 
the  life  of  the  other. 

Mr.  Burbank  heartily  recommends  the  work 
of  grafting  from  seedlings  to  all  amateurs, 
whether  their  grounds  are  small  or  large.  He 
says  that  such  immediate  results  need  not  be 
looked  for  as  in  the  breeding  of  flowers,  be- 

258 


HOW   MAY   I   DO   IT,  TOO;— GRAFTING 

cause  the  chances  for  unusually  fine  fruits  from 
a  given  number  of  seedlings  are  not  great. 
Very  many  seeds  of  apples,  for  example,  may 
be  planted,  hundreds,  even  thousands,  of  them, 
and  not  one  of  the  trees  which  grow  from  the 
seeds  may  bear  a  fruit  any  better  than  the 
apples  which  have  gone  before,  while  a  very 
large  proportion  of  them  are  more  than  likely 
to  be  inferior  or  worthless.  Still,  he  holds  that 
the  chances  of  producing  one  good  new  apple 
are  quite  sufficient,  considering  the  bearing  of 
such  a  new  fruit  upon  the  commerce  of  the 
world,  to  well  warrant  one  in  carrying  on  the 
experiments.  He  recommends  for  the  amateur 
all  the  hardier  cherries,  peaches,  apples,  pears 
and  plums  to  choose  from  for  beginning,  and 
also  all  manner  of  berries.  The  seeds  or  pits 
from  the  best  fruit  obtainable  should  be  kept 
very  slightly  moist  through  the  winter  for  the 
spring  planting.  The  larger  the  number  of 
them,  the  greater  the  opportunities  for  in- 
teresting results.  The  seeds  should  be  planted 
in  a  trench  from  a  half-inch  to  an  inch  deep, 
though  no  hard  and  fast  rule  may  be  set  down 
applicable  to  all.  It  will  be  necessary  to  bear 
in  mind  the  climate  in  which  one  lives  in  se- 

259 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

lecting  a  fruit  upon  which  to  work.  Experi- 
ments may,  however,  develop  some  quite 
interesting  results  if  the  effort  is  made  to 
produce  a  fruit  which  will  be  hardier  than  any 
grown  in  one's  locality,  thus  adding,  if  success- 
ful, a  new  feature  of  value. 

By  the  end  of  the  first  season  the  young 
trees  should  be  large  enough  for  grafting 
wood.  The  work  of  grafting  should  begin 
when  the  spring  is  first  coming  or  just  before 
the  buds  are  swelling.  The  tiny  branches  of 
the  young  tree  to  be  grafted  should  be  cut  up 
into  pieces  about  two  inches  long,  with  two  or 
three  buds  on  each,  and  then  grafted  in  the 
manner  noted  above. 

In  grafting,  care  must  be  taken  that  seed 
fruits  be  grafted  upon  trees  bearing  seed 
fruits,  pit  fruit  upon  pit  fruits.  For  example, 
it  will  not  do  to  graft  a  plum  upon  an  apple 
tree,  but  upon  another  plum  tree  or  upon  an 
apricot,  almond  or  peach;  an  apple  graft  upon 
an  apple  tree,  and  so  on. 

As  indicated  in  Mr.  Burbank's  own  work, 
the  larger  the  number  of  seeds  sown  the 
greater  the  chances  of  success.  Here,  as  in  the 
case  of  flowers,  Mr.  Burbank  points  out  the 

260 


HOW   MAY   I   DO   IT,  TOO;— GRAFTING 

possibilities  of  producing  something  of  surpas- 
sing value  to  the  world.  Even  in  case  the  new 
fruit  created  is  not  better  than  old  fruits  of 
the  same  class,  there  is  great  satisfaction,  as 
with  the  flowers,  in  being  able  to  present  to  a 
friend  a  fruit  which  one  has  himself  made ; 
while  there  is  before  one  the  other  possibility 
of  producing  a  fruit  which  is  to  revolutionize, 
as  many  of  his  fruits  are  revolutionizing,  the 
production  of  the  world. 

The  seedlings  could  be  transplanted  from 
their  trench  and  allowed  to  grow  to  maturity 
upon  their  own  roots,  but  this  would,  as  a  rule, 
take  all  the  way  from  six  to  twenty  years, 
while  by  grafting  them  upon  a  mature  tree 
they  may  be  hurried  forward  to  fruitage  in 
two  to  four  seasons.  It  would  have  been 
impossible  for  Mr.  Burbank  to  have  reached 
the  results  he  has  achieved  if  he  had  depended 
upon  first  raising  his  seedlings  to  the  period  of 
bearing  fruit  before  determining  their  value. 
He  could  not  have  accomplished  the  ends  he 
has  reached  in  a  thousand  years. 

In  the  way  of  instruments  Mr.  Burbank 
recommends  to  the  amateur  any  good  pruning- 
knife  of  fine  steel,  a  smaller  knife  like 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

a  budding-knife,  a  small  can  for  the  wax,  with 
a  paint  brush  to  put  it  on  the  graft -joint,  a 
stock  of  small  strips  of  white  cloth.  Other 
and  more  elaborate  grafting  devices  can  be 
bought,  but  Mr.  Burbank  considers  these 
sufficient,  too  elaborate  an  outfit  being  a 
hindrance  rather  than  a  help. 

The  wax  he  recommends  should  be  made  of 
four  pounds  of  resin  to  one  pound  of  beeswax, 
with  enough  linseed  oil  to  make  it  work  well. 
This,  when  melted  up  together  and  allowed 
to  cool,  forms  a  cake  from  which  enough  can 
be  broken  at  any  time  for  the  work  in  hand, 
and  the  rest  will  keep  indefinitely.  The  piece 
which  is  broken  off  should  be  heated  until  it  is 
warm  enough  to  flow  easily.  It  should  not  be 
too  soft  or  it  will  run  in  the  warm  sun,  nor 
too  hard  or  it  will  crack.  The  object  is  to 
protect  the  union  of  the  graft  and  the  tree 
by  means  of  the  wax  and  the  enclosing 
bandage  of  cloth,  and  a  very  little  experience 
will  show  when  the  wax  is  of  just  the  right 
consistency.  It  is  well,  if  there  is  considerable 
grafting  to  be  done,  to  keep  the  can  or  pot 
containing  the  wax  over  a  lamp  or  small  oil- 
stove  in  order  to  hold  it  at  the  proper  con- 

262 


HOW   MAY    I    DO    IT,  TOO ;— GRAFTING 

sistency.  A  little  more  linseed  oil  may  at 
any  time  be  added,  if  the  wax  gets  too  hard. 
In  order  to  keep  well  from  season  to  season, 
Mr.  Burbank  says  the  wax  should  be  a  little 
harder  than  ordinary  chewing-gum. 

When  one  has  an  estate  of  some  consider- 
able size  and  wishes  to  carry  on  the  work  of 
growing  new  kinds  of  fruit  on  a  larger  scale, 
results  may  be  easily  attained  far-reaching  in 
their  extent  and  with  still  larger  opportunities 
for  the  production  of  a  fruit  of  unique 
character.  To  show  somewhat  the  possibilities 
of  reproduction  of  grafts,  Mr.  Burbank  says 
that  a  single  tree  two  years  old,  when  cut  up 
into  grafts,  will  produce  the  following  season 
from  three  to  four  thousand  buds.  If  each 
one  of  the  buds  from  these  four  thousand 
would  produce  its  full  quota,  so  that  it  would 
be  possible  to  keep  up  the  progression,  at 
the  end  of  the  third  season  the  single  bud 
would  have  become  parent  to  over  two 
hundred  and  fifty  billions  of  trees. 

Very  little  pollenating  of  the  flowers  of  the 
fruit  trees  is  now  done  by  Mr.  Burbank 
because  he  has  made  so  very  many  combina- 
tions and  has  such  a  vast  number  of  different 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT  LIFE 

kinds  of  trees  already  started  on  their  way 
that  it  would  not  be  worth  while  to  make 
further  crossings. 

In  this  connection  it  is  of  peculiar  interest 
to  note  that  Mr.  Burbank  has  come  to  the 
conclusion,  after  many  years  of  crossing,  or 
hybridizing,  and  grafting,  that  hybridization 
in  one  sense  is  only  a  mode  of  grafting,  botli 
being  a  more  or  less  permanent  combination. 

In  an  elaborate  chart  he  traces  side  by  side 
the  parallelism  of  results  he  has  noted  in  both 
grafting  and  pollenating: 

Where,  for  example,  the  pollen  of  one  plant 
acts  as  a  poison  upon  another,  the  grafts 
blight  and  die  as  if  poisoned. 

Where,  in  pollenating,  the  union  is  partial, 
mosaic  or  temporary,  seed  is  rarely  produced, 
seedlings  generally  inheriting  tendencies  and 
qualities  of  one  parent  only,  the  second  or 
later  generations  reverting  fully;  the  grafting 
shows  often  a  temporary  union  but  not  in 
normal  condition. 

Where  the  union  by  crossing  is  free,  seed- 
lings showing  an  unbalanced  condition, 
varying  widely,  the  best  condition  for  scien- 
tific or  natural  selection,  while  the  grafting 

264 


HOW    MAY   I   DO   IT,  TOO;— GRAFTING 

shows  a  ready  union  of  cion  and  tree  but 
separation  follows  under  unusual  stress, 
drought,  overbearing,  lack  of  nourishment, 
and  so  on. 

In  another  stage  of  usual  variation  where, 
in  crossing,  the  union  is  free,  the  seed  of 
superior  germinating  quality  and  produced 
abundantly,  the  seedlings  being  normal  with 
ordinary  amount  of  variability,  the  grafts 
unite  readily,  thriving  well ;  sometimes  better 
than  when  grafted  on  their  own  stock. 

He  says  on  this  point: 

"Where  the  plants  are  very  different,  having 
a  different  line  of  descent  and  consequently 
different  structure,  there  will  be  no  hybridiza- 
tion at  all.  From  this  we  have  every  grada- 
tion to  a  point  where  the  individuals  are  very 
closely  alike,  and  here  we  also  have  scarcely 
any  variation  at  all  in  the  progeny,  a  condition 
which  favors  extinction.  Again,  in  grafting, 
we  have  every  intergradation  between  total 
inability  to  unite  and  absolutely  perfect 
blend." 

Along  with  all  the  work  of  grafting  goes 
constant  selection,  the  constant  choosing  of 
the  best  from  the  best.  It  might  be  somewhat 

265 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

difficult  for  an  amateur  grafter  to  make 
selection  from  a  lot  of  seedlings  as  Mr.  Bur- 
bank  does,  choosing  the  very  best  from  a 
hundred  thousand  with  unerring  eye,  in  a 
single  day's  time,  but  it  will  require  but 
comparatively  little  training  for  any  one  who 
is  deeply  interested  in  the  work  to  make 
intelligent  choice  between  the  few  young  trees 
of  beginning  experiments  as  they  come, 
selecting  those  which  are  in  all  ways  thriftier 
and  "likelier"  trees.  When  all  is  said  and 
done,  selection  in  plant  -  breeding  is  very 
largely  a  matter  of  individual  judgment, 
backed  up  by  the  largest  possible  knowledge 
attainable  as  to  the  life  history  and  past 
environment  of  the  plant  itself. 

Mr.  Burbank  offers  the  following  sug- 
gestions as  to  orchard -grafting: 

"  Commence  in  January,  if  much  is  to  be 
done.  February  is  probably  the  best  month 
on  most  of  the  Pacific  coast.  March  is  as  good 
if  the  grafting  -  wood  has  been  well  kept. 
April  is  not  too  late,  and  May  sometimes  and 
for  some  things,  is  a  good  month.  One  and  a 
half  to  two  and  a  half  inches  in  diameter  is 
the  best  grafting  size  of  branch  for  old  trees. 

266 


HOW   MAY   I   DO   IT,  TOO ;— GRAFTING 

If  cut  back  to  where  the  branches  are  thicker 
the  tree  receives  too  great  a  shock,  the  grafts 
do  not  take  hold  as  well  and  the  tree  forms 
a  close,  bunchy  head  which  is  not  ornamental 
or  profitable.  Graft  the  branches  where  you 
wish  them  to  grow  to  form  a  new  top,  leave 
many  twigs  and  smaller  and  unimportant 
branches  to  keep  the  sap  up  until  the  grafts 
have  one  season's  growth.  All  suckers  near 
the  grafts  should  be  pulled  off  as  soon  as 
they  appear.  It  is  very  important,  after 
grafting,  to  watch  and  cut  back  a  part  of  the 
new  growth  early  in  the  season,  else  the  wind 
may  get  too  great  a  leverage  and  break  out 
the  grafts  before  fully  healed  over.  It  is  also 
often  best  to  reinforce  them  for  a  while  with 
a  small  twig  or  stick  tightly  tied  to  the  old 
branch  and  lightly  tied  to  the  new  growth." 


267 


CHAPTER   XVI 

COMMERCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  THE  WORK 

TN  forming  any  just  estimate  of  the  com- 
•"•  mercial  importance  of  Mr.  Burbank's  work, 
different  factors  must  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion. Though  it  is  a  quarter  of  a  century 
since  he  began  the  actual  work  of  plant-breed- 
ing on  a  large  scale,  it  is  only  within  the  past 
ten  or  twelve  years  that  the  most  important 
lines  have  been  developed.  At  the  time  he 
closed  out  his  nursery  business  in  1893  he 
entered  upon  a  series  of  important  experi- 
ments, many  of  which  are  but  just  coming 
into  fruition.  It  takes  all  the  way  from  ten  to 
fifteen  years,  in  some  cases  much  longer,  to 
carry  a  new  plant  forward  to  its  perfected  stage. 
For  example,  the  amaryllis  took  nineteen 
years,  the  hybrid  lilies  over  t\venty,  and  both 
are  still  to  have  further  attention.  Not  only 
must  the  actual  excellence  of  a  new  fruit,  for 
example,  be  determined  and  its  standing 
ascertained  alongside  of  other  fruits  then  in 

268 


COMMERCIAL   ASPECTS    OF   THE    WORK 

existence,  but  time  enough  must  elapse  for  it 
to  become  thoroughly  fixed  in  its  new  ways 
so  that  it  will  not  revert  to  some  former 
condition  of  inefficiency. 

Then,  too,  when  all  this  has  been  accom- 
plished, it  still  must  stand  the  test  of  the 
orchard,  the  shipper,  the  dealer  and  the 
consumer.  It  must  be  grown,  too,  by  the 
average  fruit-grower  under  average  conditions. 
As  has  elsewhere  been  noted,  Mr.  Burbank 
fits  the  new  fruit,  in  so  far  as  he  possibly  can, 
for  just  these  average  conditions,  so  that  when 
it  goes  out  from  under  his  care  he  is  willing  to 
trust  it  to  the  world.  But  no  human  being 
can  tell  what  the  commercial  outcome  of  a 
new  fruit  will  be.  It  may  have  undoubted 
superiority  over  others  of  its  class,  but  it  may 
not  at  once  catch  the  popular  fancy.  It  may 
fall  into  the  hands  of  some  one  who  for  one 
and  another  reason  does  not  care  to  push  it 
forward ;  possibly  not  until  some  other  favorite 
has  run  its  course.  Then,  again,  a  new  fruit 
may  require  a  special  and  particular  handling 
in  its  shipment  or  in  some  other  feature  of  its 
life,  and  unless  the  conditions  are  carefully 
complied  with  the  best  results  will  not  come, 

269 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

Sometimes,  as  Mr.  Burbank  puts  it,  the  fruit- 
raiser  must  be  adapted  to  the  fruit.  It  must 
be  borne  in  mind  also,  in  any  consideration  of 
the  commercial  feature,  that  many  of  the 
creations  of  Mr.  Burbank  are  not  commercially 
identified  with  his  name,  having  been  bought 
by  florists  or  horticulturists  who  exploit  them 
in  their  own  way  and  under  names  of  their 
own  selection. 

Aside  from  all  this,  the  very  heart  and 
spirit  of  Mr.  Burbank's  method  are  directly 
opposed  to  any  monopolistic  control  of  his 
new  fruits.  To  get  these  fruits  to  the  general 
public  at  the  earliest  moment  possible  and  at 
the  lowest  figure  is  his  highest  aim.  "Abso- 
lutely no  restrictions,"  that  is  the  key-note. 
One  of  the  largest  fruit-growers  in  California 
estimates  that  Mr.  Burbank  could  easily  be 
making  a  net  revenue  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  per  year  if  he  should  hold  back 
his  fruits  and  flowers  and  handle  them  solely 
for  the  money  that  could  be  made  from  them. 
But  to  do  this  would  be  to  stultify  himself; 
his  measure  of  success  has  not  been  the 
standard  of  the  dollar :  success  to  him  means 
the  accomplishment  of  the  greatest  possible 

270 


S  « 


I 


COMMERCIAL   ASPECTS   OF   THE    WORK 

good  for  the  greatest  possible  number  of 
people. 

A  number  of  prominent  fruit-growers  with 
a  keen  eye  to  thrift  approached  Mr.  Burbank 
one  day  with  a  proposition  to  form  a  corpora- 
tion or  syndicate  for  the  handling  of  one  of 
his  new  plums,  a  particularly  valuable  one,  in 
some  ways  the  most  important  plum  he  had 
made.  In  a  most  captivating  way  the  promo- 
ters of  the  scheme  presented  its  attractions. 
The  gentlemen  interested  had  seen  the  vast 
possibilities  in  the  absolute  control  of  the  fruit, 
and  Mr.  Burbank's  share  in  the  profits  to  accrue 
was  alluringly  presented.  The  project  was  in 
no  way  dishonorable  and  it  was  distinctly 
business-like,  but  it  was  in  direct  opposition 
to  Mr.  Burbank's  life  policy- — to  place  no 
restrictions  upon  his  productions  but  to  get 
them  running  in  the  channels  of  the  public 
at  the  earliest  date  possible.  So  the  plum 
syndicate  was  never  formed. 

When  Mr.  Burbank  began  placing  his  new 
creations  on  the  market,  after  he  had  given 
up  the  nursery  business,  he  stated  in  one  of 
his  lists: 

"The  time,  the  care  and  the  expense  of 

271 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN    PLANT   LIFE 

producing  these  new  fruits  and  flowers  are 
simply  astounding  to  those  not  familiar  with 
the  facts.  They  are  usually  offered  once 
only,  all  the  main  financial  profit  being  se- 
cured by  the  early  purchasers  and  planters. 
If  in  the  past  I  had  received  only  one  cent 
for  each  ten  thousand  dollars  added  to  the 
wealth  of  the  world  by  my  plant  productions, 
those  mentioned  in  the  list  could  be  passed 
out  freely  to  all  who  ask;  but  no  great 
undertaking  can  long  exist  without  some 
provision  for  running  expenses,  therefore  the 
prices  accompanying  this  list.  I  have  no 
government  aid,  no  college  endowment,  and 
nothing  whatever  to  keep  up  the  work  except 
the  occasional  sale  of  these  new  fruits  and 
flowers." 

One  of  the  most  prominent  men  in  the 
fruit-growing  industry  in  California,  a  hard- 
headed,  successful  business  man  who  had  for 
many  years  been  interested  in  Mr.  Burbank's 
lifework,  said  concerning  the  financial  side 
of  his  work: 

"  Not  many  know  of  the  influence  that  has 
been  brought  to  bear  upon  Mr.  Burbank  to 
make  a  big  business  enterprise  of  his  novelties. 

272 


COMMERCIAL   ASPECTS    OF   THE    WORK 

Many  have  begged  the  opportunity  of  going 
into  partnership  with  him  on  a  very  large 
scale,  offering  to  provide  all  the  money  neces- 
sary. Eager  requests  for  the  plants  that  he 
has  to  sell  come  from  every  country,  and  he 
had  the  making  at  Santa  Rosa  of  the  greatest 
and  most  profitable  nursery  business  in  the 
world.  Mr.  Burbank,  however,  is  not  out 
for  money.  Money  to  him  is  only  a  means 
to  an  end  —  the  blessing  of  mankind  by  as 
wide  a  distribution  as  possible  of  flowers  more 
beautiful  and  fruits  of  higher  grade  than 
ever  before  existed. 

"  When  Mr.  Burbank  introduced  his  won- 
derful sugar  prune  four  years  ago,  I  secured 
a  hundred  feet  of  grafting  wood  from  him, 
and  produced  four  thousand  nursery  trees  in 
a  single  year.  In  the  succeeding  year  I  had 
over  fifty  thousand  trees  for  sale  —  by  far  the 
largest  stock  of  that  variety  then  in  existence. 
I  had  difficulty  in  disposing  of  the  trees, 
because  they  were  not  then  known  to  be  a 
commercial  success,  and  California  growers 
would  not  plant  out  large  quantities  until 
they  knew  the  public  would  buy  the  fruit. 
Mr.  Burbank,  as  I  knew,  had  sold  out  his 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

stock  the  first  season,  and  I  offered  to  furnish 
the  trees  to  fill  his  orders.  Mr.  Burbank, 
however,  replied  that  he  had  left  the  nursery 
business  some  time  ago,  and  was  now  drop- 
ping the  tree  business,  as  he  had  not  a  moment 
to  spare  to  attend  to  such  things,  but  it 
would  give  him  the  greatest  pleasure  to  turn 
over  any  customers  he  might  have  to  me. 
Subsequently  many  different  people  bought 
sugar  prune  trees  of  me  who  had  been 
recommended  to  me  by  Mr.  Burbank.  This 
incident  made  a  great  impression  on  me, 
because  I  knew  that  Mr.  Burbank  could  make 
good  use  of  the  money.  Is  it  not  inspiring  to 
know  that  a  scientist  of  Mr.  Burbank's  fame 
is  so  free  from  the  frailties  that  are  induced 
by  a  love  of  money?  Luther  Burbank  is  a 
man  who  could  be  rich,  but  he  will  not 
consider  the  object  as  worth  attaining.  He 
is  wholly  devoted  to  making  the  world  more 
beautiful  with  flowers,  and  more  pleasant 
with  new  and  wonderful  fruits." 

While  many  thousands  of  dollars  have 
been  invested  in  the  production  of  the  new 
plums,  and  while  they  have  but  barely  begun 
their  commercial  course  both  here  and  in 

274 


COMMERCIAL   ASPECTS   OF   THE   WORK 

foreign  countries,  they  are  distinctly  threat- 
ened by  Mr.  Burbank  himself,  and  this  is  why 
it  is  so  very  difficult  to  give  any  adequate 
estimate  of  the  commercial  value  of  his  new 
plums  and  prunes.  They  are  threatened  be- 
cause when  his  new  pitless  plum  and  the 
pitless  prune  which  will  follow  are  once  upon 
the  market,  the  death -knell  of  present-day 
plums  and  prunes  of  their  class  will  have 
been  sounded.  These  new  plums  and  prunes 
promise  to  be  just  as  beautiful,  just  as  rich, 
or  richer,  just  as  hardy  and  prolific,  and  the 
place  of  the  pits  of  former  centuries  is  to  be 
occupied  with  the  meat  of  the  fruit  itself.  As 
soon  as  this  is  done,  many  plum  and  prune 
orchards  in  the  world  will  be  practically 
supplanted,  and  all  of  them  must  eventually 
be  made  over  to  suit  the  new  order  of  things. 
Day  by  day,  as  his  splendid  plums  and 
prunes  make  their  way  among  the  fruit-grow- 
ers, they  are  paying  handsomely  on  the  invest- 
ment, and  they  will  yield  their  revenues  up 
to  the  very  limit  of  the  date  of  the  appearing 
of  the  new  plum,  and  even  on  beyond,  while 
it  is  coming  into  bearing,  so  that  there  will 
be  no  great  and  wholesale  disaster.  But  the 

275 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

hand- writing  is  on  the  wall,  and  fruit-grow- 
ers have  long  since  taken  note  of  it:  the 
revolution  will  be  bloodless,  but  it  promises 
to  be  complete. 

I  was  much  interested  in  the  statement  of  a 
fruit-grower  who  had  handled  one  of  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  prunes.  It  was  a  venture  with  him,  for 
though  nearly  one-third  richer  in  sugar  than 
the  French  prune,  much  larger,  and  more  pro- 
lific, it  had  not  turned  out  the  season  before 
so  well  as  he  had  hoped;  though  he  noted, 
however,  that  this  may  have  been  in  some 
measure  due  to  the  season  itself.  The  impor- 
tant feature,  however,  from  a  commercial 
point  of  view  was  this,  that  he  had  simply 
changed  the  prune  into  a  plum,  selling  it  by 
the  thousands  of  cases  in  the  East  where,  on 
the  New  York,  Boston  and  Chicago  markets 
it  sold  at  the  head  of  the  list  on  such  days  as 
it  was  offered  for  sale.  The  French  prune  with 
which  it  was  competing  as  a  prune  had  no 
merit  whatever  as  an  eating  and  shipping 
plum. 

While  the  next  few  years  promise  still 
greater  returns  to  the  world  from  Mr.  Bur- 
bank's  creations,  because  at  the  date  of  the 

276 


Showing  method  of  grafting 


COMMERCIAL   ASPECTS    OF   THE    WORK 

issuance  of  this  volume  so  many  of  them  are 
but  just  coming  into  commercial  sway,  it  is  to 
the  somewhat  more  distant  future  unquestion- 
ably that  the  greatest  commercial  triumphs  are 
to  be  won  for  the  world.  And  this  is  not  be- 
cause the  present -time  creations  are  not  splen- 
didly fulfilling  their  mission,  but  because  the 
newer  work  has  vastly  greater  possibilities.  In 
the  pitless  plums  and  prunes,  the  new  grasses, 
the  thornless  cactus,  the  new  fast-growing 
forest  trees,  the  frost-resisting  trees,  the  wrork 
in  new  varieties  of  pears,  apples,  quinces, 
peaches,  apricots  and  berries,  together  with 
other  experiments  under  way  which  have  not 
yet  reached  so  advanced  a  stage,  lie  vaster 
commercial  possibilities  than  in  anything  he 
has  yet  achieved,  as  well  as  a  greater  measure 
of  service  to  the  race. 


277 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  CARNEGIE  INSTITUTION  GRANT 

A  S  has  been  indicated  in  a  former  chapter, 
J-^L-  a  day  came  in  Mr.  Burbank's  career 
when  it  was  evident  that,  no  matter  how 
much  he  still  might  accomplish  for  the  world, 
he  could  not  hope  to  go  forward  at  a  pace 
commensurate  with  his  genius  and  his  oppor- 
tunities without  outside  aid.  By  aid  would  be 
meant  not  some  subvention  from  some  insti- 
tution or  state  or  government  which  would 
first  recognize  him  as  in  want  and  then  lend  a 
helping  hand,  while  establishing,  at  the  same 
time,  an  essentially  selfish  hold  upon  him. 
While  it  was  true  that  year  by  year  he  was 
running  behind  in  his  expenses,  he  had  long 
since  passed  the  period  of  privation,  though 
he  had  never  passed  the  point  of  strictest 
economy  in  order  that  no  cent  might  be 
wasted  but  all  devoted  to  his  lifework.  Any 
aid  which  should  come  to  him,  then,  must  be 
first  of  all  sympathetic — using  the  word  in  its 

278 


THE   CARNEGIE    INSTITUTION    GRANT 

very  broadest  meaning;  and,  next,  it  must 
be  aid  devoted,  as  he  is  devoted,  to  the  welfare 
of  the  world,  which  should  enable  him  to  at- 
tain in  his  own  way  a  still  larger  measure  of 
usefulness  than  he  could  have  accomplished 
alone.  Important  as  his  work  has  already 
been,  even  more  must  have  been  accomplished 
had  there  been  greater  freedom  of  service. 

During  a  period  of  fifteen  or  eighteen  years 
there  had  been  frequent  suggestions  made  by 
those  who  knew  the  work  best  that  aid  of 
some  kind  should  be  given  in  order  that  the 
work  should  not  suffer.  Suggestions,  now  and 
then  came  in  reviews  in  local  newspapers  of 
the  wonderful  things  being  accomplished. 
Now  and  then  some  government  official,  in- 
terested in  the  scientific  and  practical  depart- 
ments of  the  broad  subject  of  plant  develop- 
ment, visited  Mr.  Burbank,  was  amazed  at  the 
enterprise  under  way,  and  was  full  of  regret 
that  the  government  could  not  take  hold  of 
the  work  and  help  carry  it  forward, — it  would 
be  impossible,  was  the  usual  line  of  thought, 
for  the  government  to  offer  any  specific  aid 
without  incurring  the  charge  of  paternalism 
and  opening  the  way  to  an  indefinite  and 

279 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

unfortunate  extension  of  aid  to  others  less 
deserving. 

While  no  one  else  save  himself  could  pos- 
sibly know  how  much  aid  would  have  meant 
to  him  at  times  when,  driven  to  the  very  limit 
of  physical  and  mental  strain,  he  could  see  no 
possible  way  over  the  financial  obstacles  that 
confronted  him,  yet  never  in  the  course  of  his 
life  had  he  ever  asked  for  aid  from  individual, 
corporate  body,  state  or  nation.  Time  and 
again  foreign  scientists  or  horticulturists 
visiting  Mr.  Burbank  expressed  amazement 
that  no  subvention  had  ever  been  made  by  his 
government,  because  the  vast  importance  of 
the  work  was  not  less  significant  than  the 
wealth  which  must  accrue  to  the  state  by  pro- 
vision of  funds  to  carry  the  work  forward  on 
larger  lines. 

At  last  the  whole  subject  was  brought  to 
the  attention  of  the  trustees  of  the  Carnegie 
Institution  at  Washington.  After  a  searching 
consideration  of  the  matter,  an  offer  was  made 
of  a  subvention,  or  grant,  it  is  understood  of 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  ten  thousand 
dollars  per  year  for  ten  years.  Briefly  stated, 
the  object  of  this  Institution,  founded  by 

280 


THE   CARNEGIE    INSTITUTION   GRANT 

Andrew  Carnegie  and  incorporated  in  1902,  is 
as  follows: 

"  To  promote  original  research  as  one  of  the 
most  important  of  all  subjects ;  to  discover  the 
exceptional  man  and  enable  him  to  make  the 
work  for  which  he  seems  specially  designed  his 
lifework ;  to  publish  and  distribute  the  results 
of  scientific  investigation ;  to  increase  facilities 
for  higher  education.  In  the  field  of  research 
the  function  of  the  Institution  is  organization; 
—to  substitute  organized  for  unorganized 
effort;  to  unite  scattered  individuals  working 
independently,  where  it  appears  that  such 
combination  of  effort  will  produce  the  best 
results;  and  to  endeavor  to  prevent  needless 
duplication  of  work.  The  Institution  does  not 
attempt  to  do  anything  that  is  being  well  done 
by  other  agencies;  to  do  that  which  can  be 
better  done  by  other  agencies ;  to  give  aid  to 
individuals  or  other  organizations  in  order  to 
relieve  them  of  financial  responsibilities  which 
they  are  not  able  to  carry ;  to  enter  into  agree- 
ment with  any  organization  for  the  purpose  of 
conductive  research  unless  the  conditions  are 
such  as  to  reasonably  assure  continuation  of 
the  agreement  through  a  sufficient  period  of 

281 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

time  to  complete  the  special  research  entered 
upon." 

It  will  thus  appear  that  the  Institution 
comes  into  particularly  close  consonance  with 
the  work  which  Mr.  Burba^k  had  so  long 
been  carrying  on  under  peculiar  difficulties. 

The  grant  became  available  at  the  begin- 
ning of  1905. 

There  are  two  important  features,  or  phases, 
of  Mr.  Burbank's  work  of  which  the  Carnegie 
Institution  takes  special  cognizance.  One  of 
these  is  its  practical  bearing  upon  the  welfare 
of  mankind.  In  a  work  so  many-sided  as  this, 
the  scope  of  this  practical  application  is  at 
once  suggested, —  how  best  to  effect  this 
practical  application  is  of  paramount  im- 
portance. 

Many  times  in  his  career  Mr.  Burbank  has 
been  forced  to  abandon  a  given  experiment, 
not  because  it  did  not  promise  to  yield 
admirable  results,  but  because  he  did  not 
have  sufficient  funds  to  carry  it  forward. 
This  was  particularly  true  of  those  tests  which 
he  would  have  been  glad  to  follow  out  because 
of  the  especial  scientific  interest  that  attached 
to  their  development.  The  actual  expense 

282 


THE   CARNEGIE    INSTITUTION   GRANT 

for  manual  labor  for  the  carrying  forward  of 
a  single  test  through  a  long  series  of  years 
is  large  in  the  aggregate,  especially  so  since 
the  manual  labor  for  his  service  must  be 
backed  up  by  keen  intelligence  and  sound 
judgment,  a  combination  not  always  easy  to 
be  obtained.  There  have  been  very  many 
tests,  hundreds  sometimes,  under  way  at  the 
same  time,  and  it  was  inevitable  that  some 
must  fall  by  the  way.  So  great  has  been  the 
demand  for  funds  for  the  maintenance  of 
major  tests  that  many  of  the  minor  ones, 
which  might  easily  have  been  advanced  to 
the  higher  position,  have,  like  a  neglected 
plant,  died  for  want  of  support. 

It  is  of  special  interest  in  this  connection 
that  Mr.  Burbank's  work  has  been  cumulative 
from  the  very  inception.  With  each  new 
triumph  the  way  has  opened  to  others,  so 
that  at  no  time  in  his  life  had  there  been 
so  many  great  opportunities  before  him  as 
when  this  grant  was  proposed.  Best  of  all, 
as  the  years  had  come  arid  gone,  he  entered 
upon  each  new  experiment  fuller  of  interest 
in  the  outcome,  deeper  in  his  zest  over  the 
developments.  Couple  with  this  maturity  of 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

all  his  powers, — judgment,  discrimination, 
intuition,  observation,  scientific  thought  in  its 
widest  and  deepest  bearing,  and  the  like, — and 
you  have  the  ideal  conditions  for  enterprise 
of  the  loftiest  type. 

But  in  order  that  these  larger  results  might 
be  reached,  larger  revenues  must  be  available 
to  draw  upon.  It  is  this  revenue  that  the 
Carnegie  Institution  has  so  wisely  provided. 
The  grants  of  the  Institution  are  never 
charitable.  It  has  no  funds  for  indigents.  It 
is  intensely  practical  in  its  methods  and  in 
its  administration  of  its  funds.  It  places  no 
money  save  where,  directly  or  indirectly,  its 
expenditure  will  bring  an  ultimate  practical 
or  scientific  benefit.  Doubtless  much  time 
might  be  saved  to  applicants  for  aid  if  this 
were  more  carefully  considered. 

The  practical  side  of  the  work  will  go 
forward  under  the  grant  precisely  as  it  has 
gone  on  before  during .  all  the  years  of  Mr. 
Burbank's  great  work,  save  that  its  scope  will 
be  much  broadened.  Tests  once  impossible 
will  now  become  possible.  With  a  larger 
force  of  men  trained  in  his  methods  he  will, 
as  the  years  pass,  be  able  more  and  more  to 

284 


THE   CARNEGIE    INSTITUTION   GRANT 

delegate  work  which  once  he  wras  unable 
to  delegate,  thus  not  only  saving  his  own 
strength  for  the  new  and  more  important  tests 
and  for  the  general  oversight  of  the  work,  but 
permitting  a  much  larger  number  of  ex- 
periments, if  necessary,  to  be  under  progress 
at  the  same  time,  and  vastly  to  accelerate  the 
movement  of  the  work.  This  is  not  a  de- 
partment of  the  work  which  calls  for  more 
elaborate  apparatus, — the  earth  and  man,  these 
are  the  essentials,  and  the  higher  the  intel- 
lectual strength  and  sympathy  of  the  men 
Mr.  Burbank  is  able  to  secure,  the  larger  the 
results.  The  object  is  not  to  attempt  in  any 
way  to  curb  or  direct  or  interfere :  this  would 
be  absolutely  fatal;  what  is  intended  is  that 
there  shall  be  constant  sympathetic  aid. 

But,  at  the  same  time,  the  Institution 
stands  also  for  scientific  attainment,  and  the 
completest  measures  will  be  taken  for  the 
keeping  of  adequate  data,  as  well  as  provision 
for  the  making  of  laboratory  records.  To  this 
end  trained  experts  who  are  in  close  touch  and 
sympathy  with  Mr.  Burbank,  will  aid  in  the 
preparation  of  the  mass  of  important  data 
which  must  steadily  accumulate  in  so  extensive 

285 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

a  work.  As  will  be  shown  in  a  succeeding 
chapter,  Mr.  Burbank  has  by  no  means  been 
lacking  in  the  matter  of  general  scientific 
record,  but  the  new  arrangements  will  give 
opportunity  for  the  registering  of  much  that 
should  be  preserved  for  the  benefit  of  others. 
Microscopic  and  photo-microscopic  work,  as 
well  as  elaborate  recording  of  the  details  in 
the  life  history  of  plants  under  test,  will  be 
followed  with  the  utmost  care.  Funds  will  be 
provided  for  this  and  for  the  necessary  atten- 
dant expense  in  equipment  and  salaries.  It  was 
utterly  out  of  the  question  for  Mr.  Burbank 
to  prepare  such  elaborate  data  as  will  now  be 
of  record,  greatly  as  he  desired  it,  though  it 
will  appear  in  the  description  of  his  novel  plan 
books  that  he  has  never  for  a  moment  lost 
sight  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  fundamental 
records. 

As  the  work  progresses  through  the  years, 
there  will  be  publication  of  the  data  compiled 
and  set  in  order  by  trained  men.  Elaborate 
photographic  records,  aside  from  micro-photo- 
graphic ones,  will  give  charm  as  well  as 
defmiteness  in  preserving  the  larger  events  in 
the  life  history  of  fruits  and  flowers.  The  only 

286 


THE   CARNEGIE    INSTITUTION   GRANT 

man  who  can  ever  succeed  in  the  deep  sense 
in  association  with  Mr.  Burbank  in  the 
development  of  the  scientific  phases  of  his 
work  is  a  man  who  has  not  only  the  liberal 
training  of  the  schools  and  the  inborn  love 
for  research,  but  who  sees  beyond  the  mere 
matter  of  academic  record,  important  though 
it  be,  into  the  noble  field  of  true  science  where 
he  who  wins  for  science  and  the  world  must 
stand  ready  to  divest  himself  of  the  impedi- 
menta of  precedent  the  very  instant  it  be 
found  inadequate.  Such  men,  working  with 
this  man,  should  not  only  win  new  triumphs  for 
science,  but  set  forward  the  standard  of  the 
practical.  It  need  scarcely  be  added  that  such 
men  will  be  in  unquestioned  sympathy  with 
Mr.  Burbank  and  the  great  work  which  lies 
before  and  behind  him. 

It  may  be  noted,  in  passing,  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  expenses  attached  to  the  work, 
that,  during  the  busiest  season,  when  grafting, 
transplanting  and  general  culture  are  at  their 
highest,  between  six  hundred  and  eight 
hundred  dollars  a  month  must  be  paid  out  for 
laborers'  hire  alone — a  sum  that  will  increase 
rather  than  decrease  as  the  work  advances. 

287 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

To  one  who  gives  even  a  cursory  glance,— 
and  this  only  at  the  practical  side  of  this  great 
work, — this  grant  will  appear  to  have  been 
splendidly  bestowed.  The  value  of  it  must 
still  more  clearly  come  into  view  as  the  years 
pass.  It  is  to  be  doubted  if  the  Institution  ever 
offers  a  subvention  for  a  more  commanding 
purpose.  The  work  is  not  only  of  supreme 
interest  to  people  in  every  walk  of  life,  but  it 
is  of  transcendant  commercial  importance,  as 
well  as  having  a  powerful  bearing  upon  the 
welfare  of  the  people.  The  results  of  this 
work  are  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  Carnegie 
Institution.  They  are  not  for  Luther  Bur- 
bank.  They  are  not  for  his  state,  or  his  coun- 
try, but  for  all  states  and  all  countries,  and 
for  all  the  centuries.  And  should  it  happen  as 
a  result  of  this  grant  that  some  other  man,  or 
men,  shall  be  raised  up  who  shall  prove  them- 
selves worthy  to  carry  on  this  great  work 
when  he  who  has  inaugurated  it  shall  lay  it 
down,  thus  preserving  continuity  of  effort,  a 
still  greater  boon  will  have  been  conferred 
upon  mankind.  There  is  no  other  enterprise 
in  the  world  by  which  this  may  be  measured. 
It  stands  alone,  unique  among  movements 

288 


THE   CARNEGIE    INSTITUTION    GRANT 

for  practical  and  scientific  betterment.  The 
scope  of  its  possibilities  lies  out  beyond  the 
sweep  of  the  imagination.  The  Carnegie 
Institution,  in  granting  this  subvention  to  Mr. 
Burbank,  has  performed  a  splendid  and  sub- 
stantial service  for  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

A  DAY  WITH  MR.    BURBANK 

TF  in  this  chapter  some  impression  may  be 
-*-  conveyed  of  the  tremendous  strain  under 
which  this  great  work  is  done,  a  point  will 
have  been  gained.  If  it  shall  serve  in  any 
measure  to  check  the  advance  of  the  thou- 
sands of  people  who  annually,  and  in  steadily 
increasing  numbers,  visit  Mr.  Burbank  out  of 
a  natural  curiosity,  the  full  end  will  have  been 
reached. 

Far  too  often  the  day  with  Mr.  Burbank 
begins  in  care,  advances  in  anxiety,  closes  in 
exhaustion.  Not  the  least  but  often  the  greatest 
cause  for  this  lies  in  the  visits  of  the  thought- 
less, people  with  the  best  and  kindest  of  inten- 
tions but  with  lamentable  lack  of  foresight. 
No  man  ever  lived  with  wider  and  richer  hos- 
pitality, with  stancher  friends;  no  man  ever 
enjoyed  intercourse  with  personal  friends  more 
keenly.  Surely,  even  a  man  who  has  made  a 
great  place  in  the  world,  who  in  a  certain 

290 


The  original  Burbank  plum  tree.     Millions  of  trees  have 
been  grown  from  it 


A   DAY   WITH   MR.    BURBANK 

noble  sense  is  the  common  property  of  the 
people,  is  entitled  to  his  own  privacies ;  even 
more,  from  the  standpoint  of  achievement  for 
the  welfare  of  the  world,  is  entitled  to  his 
precious  hours  of  labor,  when  a  single 
thoughtless  interruption  may  be  the  means 
of  irreparable  loss. 

Each  day  with  Mr.  Burbank  is  a  composite, 
or  perhaps  better  put,  a  mosaic;  and  no  two 
are  just  alike.  At  certain  seasons  of  the  year, 
particularly  should  some  great  fertilizing  test 
be  under  way,  he  is  up  with  the  sun,  when  the 
flowers  are  opening  and  the  bees  are  a-wing 
and  Nature  is  in  her  gentlest  and  most  ingen- 
uous mood.  For  hours  on  such  a  day  as  this 
he  must  work  unremittingly,  until  the  pollen- 
ating  of  great  numbers  of  plants  has  been 
completed  and  Nature  has  been  made  ready  to 
be  big  with  wondrous  secrets.  Commonly,  he 
rises  about  seven  o'clock  and  breakfasts  at 
eight.  If  much  worn  on  the  preceding  day,  he 
may  lie  in  bed  until  nine,  or  possibly  ten 
o'clock,  for  he  is  an  ardent  believer  in  the 
efficacy  of  absolute  physical  and  mental 
rest  following  periods  of  prolonged  toil.  He 
has  proven  for  himself  the  recuperative  and? 

291 


NEW  CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

indeed,   curative,  value   of  absolute   physical 
relaxation. 

Work  is  always  awaiting  him,  always,  day 
in  and  day  out  throughout  the  entire  year ;  for 
he  labors  under  a  sky  so  genial  that  some 
gentle  life  of  nature  is  stirring  the  whole 
twelvemonth  long — some  life  in  whose  creation 
or  transformation  his  hands  are  having  a  part. 
The  workmen  must  be  superintended  day  by 
day,  even  hour  by  hour,  for  this  work  is  like 
none  other — there  is  no  pleasant  smoothness 
and  perfection  of  routine ;  for  at  any  moment 
may  arise  a  problem  so  urgent  of  solution  that 
the  whole  day's  toil  may  need  alteration  to 
suit  its  insistent  conditions.  It  is  a  thousand 
to  one,  too,  that  no  man  may  solve  the  prob- 
lem but  the  master,  the  one  whom  these 
gentle  workmen  revere  as  few  employers  are 
ever  revered.  Possibly  even  before  he  has  had 
his  breakfast,  he  may  be  seen  passing  swiftly 
out  of  the  house  and  making  his  way  with 
rapid  strides  to  some  distant  part  of  the 
grounds,  where  he  may  have  seen  from  his 
window  some  new  workman  doing  precisely 
the  opposite  from  what  he  had  been  told  to  do. 
Many  a  time,  in  his  ceaseless  search  for  the 

292 


A   DAY    WITH    MR.    BURBANK 

right  men,  he  has  taken  on  a  workman  highly 
recommended  to  him,  only  to  discover  him 
just  in  the  nick  of  time  doing  something  that 
would  result  in  serious,  perhaps  irreparable, 
harm.  Indeed,  more  than  once  such  harm  has 
been  done,  and  the  discharged  man,  perhaps, 
never  knew  what  it  was  that  caused  his  re- 
lease. Possibly,  if  some  new  weather  situation 
has  arisen,  the  order  of  the  day  may  at  once 
be  changed  to  meet  the  new  conditions. 

Some  of  the  men  are  pulling  out  tiny  weeds 
in  the  midst  of  long  rows  of  delicate  green 
plants  no  higher  than  a  man's  thumb;  some 
are  spreading  some  particular  kind  of  soil 
over  the  earth  where  a  test  calling  for  this 
soil  is  to  be  begun ;  some  are  hoeing  out  the 
weeds  among  larger  plants,  some  are  laying 
out  beds,  or  sorting  bulbs  in  the  storehouse, 
or  transplanting  delicate  plants  from  the 
greenhouse  to  outside  beds,  or  any  one  of  a 
thousand  and  one  other  duties.  Every  man 
is  working  as  though  his  life  depended  upon  it, 
and  every  one  of  them  feels  in  his  heart  of 
hearts  a  strong  fine  throb  of  pride  that  he 
is  thought  capable,  by  the  gentle  man  who 
goes  in  and  out  among  them  from  day 

293 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

to   day,  to    be    an    instrument    in   his   hands 
for  the  furtherance  of  a  great  work 

But  to  come  back  to  the  breakfast  which 
must  be  eaten  some  time,  whether  before, 
or  after,  or  during  the  hours  of  early  superin- 
tendence. It  consists  of  simple  food,  a  trifle 
old-fashioned  as  regards  fads,  but  ample  and 
wholesome  and  balanced.  If  for  the  moment 
there  is  nothing  particularly  pressing  in  the 
experimental  plots,  he  gives  an  hour  or  two 
after  breakfast  to  his  more  important  cor- 
respondence. Time  was  when  he  attended  in 
person  to  every  letter  that  came,  so  absolutely 
conscientious  was  he  toward  this  as  toward 
every  other  demand  of  his  lifework,  but  the 
day  came  when  to  do  this  and  have  any  time 
for  the  thousands  of  other  more  imperative 
demands  upon  him  was  out  of  the  question. 
So  he  shifts  the  main  responsibility  of  cor- 
respondence upon  other  shoulders.  And  yet 
there  still  remain  many  letters,  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  work  itself,  answering  of  which 
he  may  not  easily  delegate, — letters  from  men 
of  prominence  in  the  scientific  world,  letters 
from  devoted  friends,  communications  relative 
to  important  steps  in  this  or  that  creation 

294 


A   DAY   WITH    MR.    BURBANK 

under  way, — these  he  must  dictate  answers  to 
direct,  or  make  notations  in  his  clear  strong 
hand  as  to  the  answer  to  be  sent.  The 
magnitude  as  well  as  the  extent  of  the  work 
may  often  be  indicated  by  a  single  day's  mail. 
Letters  arrive  from  all  over  the  United 
States,  from  Mexico,  from  many  South  Amer- 
ican points,  while  there  is  scarcely  an  out- 
of-the-way  place  in  Europe  or  Asia  where 
fruits  or  flowers  are  cultivated  that  has  not 
either  some  collector  who  is  in  constant  touch 
with  Mr.  Burbank  in  supplying  him  with  rare 
plants  and  seeds  for  experimentation,  or  some 
florist  or  horticulturist  anxious  to  have  some 
fruit  or  flower  from  the  famous  gardens  of 
Santa  Rosa.  One  large  scrap-book  contains 
an  extensive  list  of  foreign  souvenir  postal- 
cards  bearing  greetings  from  people  he  has 
never  seen  or  heard  of  before.  Very  many 
letters  come  from  Great  Britain  and  her 
dependencies,  the  interest  in  Mr.  Burbank's 
work  being  particularly  deep  among  English- 
men. France  and  Russia  send  many  letters, 
as  do  Italy  and  Germany,  while  many  come 
from  India,  China,  Japan  and  Australia. 
There  are  communications,  too,  from  crowned 

295 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

heads  and  others  high  of  rank.  One  of  the 
most  important  features  of  Mr.  Burbank's 
correspondence  is  the  matter  of  translations 
from  foreign  languages.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  it  has  become  the  custom  in  certain 
parts  of  Mexico  and  South  America  to  make 
inquiry  in  regard  to  an  American  fruit  or 
flower  offered  for  sale,  whether  or  not  it  is 
a  " Bur banco"  If  it  is,  it  is  accepted  with- 
out question  as  being  what  it  is  represented 
to  be. 

And  the  letters  asking  for  aid  and  for 
situations, —  their  number  is  multitude.  Long 
ago  he  was  forced  to  adopt  this  form : 


Santa  Rosa,  California, 189 

DEAR  SIR:    In  reply  to  yours  of. :   The 

constant  stream  of  applications  from  all  directions 
for  a  position  has  necessitated  this  printed  slip,  as  I 
do  not  wish  to  be  considered  thoughtless  in  regard  to 
these  worthy  applications,  not  one  in  ten  thousand  or 
which  can  be  complied  with.  I  employ  my  neighbors 
only,  most  of  whom  have  been  with  me  for  many 
years,  and  cannot  give  steady  employment  to  most  or 
these  even,  and  have  no  possible  place  for  any  one 
else.  It  would  be  exceedingly  pleasant  to  me  if  I 
could  employ  the  army  who  apply.  My  kindest  and 
most  heartfelt  wishes  are  that  each  may  find  the  em- 
ployment desired.  Sincerely  yours, 

LUTHER  BURBANK 


296 


A   DAY   WITH    MR.    BURBANK 

Many  letters  which  come  make  inquiries 
upon  all  manner  of  subjects  near  or  remotely 
related  to  the  work  and  suggesting  calls  for 
further  consultation  with  Mr.  Burbank  in 
person.  To  such  this  card  is  sent: 


ASK    NO  QUESTIONS  WHICH  YOU  THINK 
CAN   BE  ANSWERED  ELSEWHERE 

If  a  reply  is  desired  which  requires  more  space 
than  a  postal  card  affords,  always  enclose  Jive  dollars. 

All  visitors  to  the  home  place  are  limited  to  five 
minutes  each,  unless  by  special  arrangements. 

Absolutely  no  visitors  allowed  at  Sebastopol  farm 

Everybody  would  be  graciously  welcomed,  but  the 
burden  of  entertaining  the  multitude  has  become  so 
great  that  the  experimental  work  has  been  very  seri- 
ously crippled. 


The  number  of  letters  to  be  answered  every 
year  is  upwards  of  forty  thousand.  In  two 
months  of  one  season  fifteen  thousand  were 
received. 

Sometimes  the  midday  meal  is  eaten  at  one 
o'clock,  sometimes  not  until  three  or  four  in 
the  afternoon,  for  if  he  has  been  compelled  to 
lie  late  in  the  morning  frequently  but  two 
meals  a  day  are  eaten. 

In  the  afternoon  it  is  more  than  likely  a 

297 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

second  grist  of  correspondence  will  have  to  be 
attended  to,  while  every  moment  not  given  to 
it  must  be  devoted  to  the  tests.  It  is  not  only 
the  tests  that  have  been  under  way  for  years 
that  need  attention  in  order  to  see  that  the 
growing  plants  are  cared  for,  but  new  tests  are 
constantly  being  started  and  the  greatest  care 
must  be  exercised  in  the  details  of  the  work. 
A  single  false  pollenation,  a  single  error  in 
transplanting,  a  single  mistake  in  uprooting  a 
plant  for  a  weed,  may  interrupt,  even  if  it 
does  not  wholly  destroy,  a  test  of  vast  impor- 
tance. And  one  of  the  most  wearing  of  all  the 
anxieties  is  found  in  this:  That  there  is  not 
an  experiment,  however  carefully  it  has  been 
planned  and  however  closely  the  future  results 
of  the  test  have  been  estimated,  that  may  not, 
through  some  untoward  act  of  man,  or  insect, 
or  bird,  or  element,  turn  out  badly  in  the  end. 
Then  all  must  be  done  over  again  and  again, 
until  the  end  sought  for  is  reached.  Nor  is 
there  a  test,  so  great  the  compensation,  which 
may  not  turn  out,  as  many  of  them  have,  far 
more  important  to  the  world  than  had  been 
anticipated. 

As  soon  as  the  afternoon  correspondence  is 

298 


A   DAY   WITH   MR.    BURBANK 

completed,  he  is  out  again  in  the  proving 
grounds,  and  until  the  sun  goes  down  there  is 
always  something  which  needs  attention. 

But  while  this  work  fills  in  every  moment 
of  the  day,  be  sure  it  is  not  all.  In  a  single 
year  fully  six  thousand  people  visit  the 
grounds  at  Santa  Rosa — as  many  would  go  to 
Sebastopol  if  they  could  get  in.  These  visitors 
almost  without  exception  want  to  see  Mr. 
Burbank.  No  matter  what  else  they  want, 
they  want  to  meet  him.  And  it  is  natural  and 
not  culpable,  but  it  is  deplorable.  They  are 
easily  divided  into  three  classes:  Those  who 
come  from  curiosity,  whom  Mr.  Burbank  never 
sees  if  he  can  avoid  it ;  those  who  come  from 
genuine  interest  and  who  are  content,  when 
some  attendant  tells  them  Mr.  Burbank  can- 
not be  seen,  to  look  over  the  grounds ;  those 
who  come  by  appointment  and  whom  Mr. 
Burbank  wishes  personally  to  see.  The  first 
class  is  far  and  away  larger  than  the  other  two 
put  together  and  more  difficult  to  handle. 
But  there  remains  a  large  enough  number 
whom  Mr.  Burbank  feels  that  he  must  see,  to 
consume  very  much  of  his  time  and  to  make 
direct  inroads  upon  his  strength.  These  are 

299 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

seen  with  all  possible  dispatch,  in  order  that  no 
time  may  be  wasted. 

When  the  grounds  are  reached  there  is,  just 
inside  the  white  picket  fence,  a  sign  which 
reads : 


NOTHING  FOR  SALE 

ALL  VISITORS  CALL  AT  THE  DOOR 


When  the  door  is  reached,  there  is  another 
sign  which  reads: 


ALL  VISITORS  ARE  LIMITED 

TO  FIVE  MINUTES  EACH  UNLESS 

BY  SPECIAL  APPOINTMENT 


In  passing,  I  cannot  too  strongly  emphasize 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Burbank's  grounds  are  abso- 
lutely private.  Still  stronger  placards  than  the 
above  now  appear  at  the  entrance  gates, 
prohibiting  all  visitors  without  previous  ar- 
rangement. This  has  been  made  imperative 
because  of  the  steadily  increasing  stream  of 
people  who  have  been  making  a  Mecca  of  his 
home. 

300 


A   DAY   WITH   MR.    BURBANK 

But,  should  a  person  succeed  in  running  the 
gauntlet  of  these  protective  signs,  there  is  still 
another  provision  which  must  be  faced.  When 
the  inside  of  the  door  is  reached,  this  slip  is  in 
readiness.  I  take  the  current  one  from  the 
block  on  a  day  in  May,  1905: 


yifitnr    TVTrt                                       Dnt.A 

What  iff  your  TW-WWW  inif.h    Mr.   ftn.rbanh  ? 

For  whose  benefit  if  thi-f  interv^n  ? 

Yonr  wim*  ? 

Ywr  ctddrew? 

ff-am-n-rk* 

All  visitors   are  limited   to  five  minutes  unless 
special  appointment. 
Mr.    Burbank's    work  is  of  such   a  nature  that 
cannot  well  be  interrupted. 

^ 

he 

Then,  in  case  the  visitor  has  particular  and 
valid  reasons  for  visiting  Sebastopol,  where  the 
larger  proving  grounds  are  located,  he  faces 
this  card  which  was  not  prepared  looking  to  a 
source  of  revenue,  but  in  order,  if  possible,  to 
keep  down  the  number  of  actual  applications: 

301 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 


TICKET  OF  ADMITTANCE    TO    BURBANK'S 

SEBASTOPOL  EXPERIMENT  FARM 

(Void  unless  dated  and  signed  by  the  Proprietor) 

Date 


Signature 

PRICES  FOR  ADMITTANCE  OF  VISITORS  during  the 
busy  months  of  April,  May,  June,  July,  August  and 
September:  Each  person,  one  hour,  $10;  each  per- 
son, one -half  hour,  $5;  each  person,  one -quarter 
hour,  $2.50. 

Admittance  will  be  allowed  at  one-half  the  above- 
named  prices  during  the  other  six  months.  When 
there  are  two  or  more  in  the  same  party,  twenty-five 
per  cent  discount  from  these  prices. 

NOTE. — Everybody  would  be  graciously  welcomed  to  the 
farm,  but  the  burden  of  entertaining  the  multitudes  has  be- 
come so  great  that  the  experimental  work  has  been  seriously 
crippled. 


There  is  but  one  object  in  all  these  restric- 
tions, to  protect  Mr.  Burbank  both  as  to 
wastage  of  time  and  physical  vitality.  He  has 
set  apart  the  month  of  July,  during  which 
time  there  are  likely  to  be  slightly  fewer 
demands  upon  his  care  in  the  actual  work,  as 
his  reception  month,  when  more  freedom  is 
allowed  in  the  way  of  admitting  visitors  to 
the  grounds  at  Santa  Rosa. 

On  certain  days  in  the  week  Mr.  Burbank 
leaves  Santa  Rosa  about  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  drives  over  to  Sebastopol,  some 

302 


A   DAY   WITH   MR.    BURBANK 

eight  miles  distant.  Here  he  devotes  the 
entire  day  to  overlooking  the  larger  work  of 
the  main  proving  ground.  More  men  are 
employed  here  than  at  Santa  Rosa,  as  the 
work  is  more  extensive.  Great  difficulty  is 
experienced  in  getting  men  who  can  adapt 
themselves  to  the  work.  The  day  spent  at 
Sebastopol  is  particularly  hard,  for  the  work  of 
the  week  preceding  must  all  be  inspected  and 
plans  laid  down  for  the  following  week.  Here 
there  must  be  constant  care  exercised  that  no 
mistakes  be  made,  for  mistakes  here,  where 
the  tests  have  so  far  advanced  that  actual 
results  are  being  reached,  are  fatal  indeed. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  fruit  trees  of  all 
kinds  needing  inspection;  work  upon  berries, 
grapes,  ornamental  shrubs  of  many  kinds ; 
extensive  tests  in  flowers,  on  a  scale  larger 
than  could  be  carried  out  at  Santa  Rosa; 
experiments  in  fast-growing  trees,  tests  of 
plants  which  have  been  recommended  from  all 
parts  of  the  world  as  suitable  for  further 
development  or  for  combination  with  other 
plants,:— these  are  some  of  the  factors  that 
unite  to  make  the  days  spent  at  Sebastopol 
wearing  to  the  very  last  degree.  In  so  far  as 

303 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN    PLANT   LIFE 

possible,  the  work  is  delegated ;  still,  very  much 
of  it  cannot  be  given  over  to  other  hands  but 
must  be  under  the  immediate  eye  of  the  one 
who  has  conceived  the  plan,  who  alone  knows 
how  it  should  be  developed,  who  alone  can  tell 
the  proper  moment  for  action  should  a 
radical  change  at  any  time  appear  necessary. 

When  the  evening  comes,  it  is  a  worn  and 
tired  figure  that  curls  up  upon  a  low  couch  in 
his  little  living-room, — tired  physically  no  less 
than  mentally,  many  a  time  worn  to  the  very 
verge  of  exhaustion.  An  hour  or  so  he  lies 
silently  resting,  not  asleep,  for  his  mind  is 
eternally  turning  upon  the  work  before  him, 
but  relaxing  in  so  far  as  possible.  Even  now 
he  is  not  left  to  himself;  for  the  messenger 
boy  may  still  reach  him;  special-delivery 
letters  come  by  night  as  well  as  day;  tele- 
grams have  no  heart. 

But  by  nine  o'clock,  if  all  is  well,  he  is  in 
bed — the  day  is  over.  Another  one  will  not 
be  long  delayed,  fuller,  it  may  be,  of  care.  Yet 
y  all  the  days  in  this  man's  life  are  rich  in  the 
splendid  consciousness  of  duty  done,  glorified 
by  the  joy  of  having  helped  the  great  primal 
forces  of  Nature  to  help  mankind. 

304 


CHAPTER  XIX 

HIS  PERSONALITY 

^ INHERE  are  certain  men  whose  lives  are 
-*-  so  open  and  free  that  the  innermost 
pages  are  disclosed  at  a  glance.  Certain  others 
need  only  the  lightning  flash  of  circumstance 
or  occasion  to  reveal  phases  of  their  life  long 
hidden.  Certain  others  remain  the  sphinx  to 
the  end. 

Luther  Burbank  belongs  to  no  one  of  these 
classes,  but  rather  to  all  of  them.  With  noth- 
ing secretive  in  his  nature,  he  yet  has  depths 
that  his  nearest  friend  does  not  fathom.  Will- 
ing at  all  times  to  be  himself  precisely  as  he 
is,  indeed,  more,  never  playing  the  hypocrite 
by  cloaking  his  own  estimate  of  his  own  deeds, 
though  absolutely  unspoiled  by  praise  and 
impregnable  to  flattery,  he  is  yet  constantly 
disclosing  some  new  and  striking  character- 
istic. Clarity  itself,  and  frankly  unreserved 
when  he  meets  those  who  understand,  he  con- 
stantly baffles  understanding  by  the  subtlety 

305 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

of  his  thought.  Some  of  those  who  have  be- 
lieved they  knew  him  most  completely  have 
found,  even  after  the  course  of  years,  that  they 
have  not  yet  crossed  the  threshold. 

A  slight,  lithe  figure,  which  would  appear 
frail  if  it  were  not  so  well  in  proportion  and  so 
closely  knit,  a  figure  full  of  nervous  strength ; 
hair  slowly  whitening,  with  a  brown  mus- 
tache slightly  streaked  with  gray;  intense  blue 
eyes  that  are  full  of  fire,  or  a-glint  with  earn- 
estness, or  twinkling  with  merriment,  or  sad 
or  gay  or  somber,  as  the  mood  passes ;  a  sensi- 
tive mouth  and  chin ;  the  bronze  of  the  west- 
ern sun  upon  his  cheeks.  It  is  the  face  of  a 
poet,  or  a  philosopher,  or  a  sagacious  man 
of  affairs,  or,  in  the  nobler  sense,  a  fine,  true 
mystic ;  for  all  of  these,  and  more,  he  is  bound 
into  one. 

He  is  quick  of  movement,  soft  and  gentle  of 
speech,  a  rare  conversationalist  when  in  the 
mood,  though  rather  inclined  to  draw  others 
out  than  to  advance  his  own  views.  Once 
started  upon  some  subject  of  deep  interest, 
however,  and  assured  that  his  auditors  are  in 
sympathy,  his  words  come  swift  at  the  bidding 
of  his  swifter  thoughts.  Sometimes  in  conver- 

306 


HIS   PERSONALITY 

sation,  if  he  be  deeply  stirred,  he  is  impetuous 
in  movement,  emphatic  in  gesture,  hardly  able 
to  confine  himself  to  the  bounds  of  modera- 
tion. And  yet  he  never  goes  a  hair's  breadth 
outside  the  fine,  strong  line  of  truth  that v 
binds  him  like  a  thread  of  gold  to  all  that  is 
highest  and  noblest.  When  any  topic  is  under 
discussion  that  takes  root  in  his  own  life  ex- 
perience, he  speaks  with  great  earnestness,  and 
if  there  perchance  be  some  wrong  that  needs 
righting,  he  minces  no  words. 

He  is  swift  but  genial  in  repartee,  generous 
in  his  praise  of  others,  instant  in  his  words  of 
sympathy  to  one  in  trouble.  At  times  when 
he  is  worn  with  prolonged  bodily  and  mental 
toil  at  the  crux  of  some  great  test,  when  every 
faculty  of  his  being  is  pushed  to  the  utmost 
limit,  he  may  rise  suddenly  after  a  long  period 
of  rest  upon  the  low  couch  in  his  room  on  the 
entrance  of  a  friend,  and  then,  if  the  conver- 
sation but  have  a  nimble  turn,  he  is  suddenly 
alive  with  animation,  entering  with  zest  into 
a  story  and  laughing  with  the  abandon  of 
a  boy.  His  wit  comes  out  sprightly  but  never 
biting;  his  humor  flows  graciously — it  is  never 
lethargic  or  ponderous.  As  swiftly  as  the  con- 

307 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

versation  shifts  he  is  in  touch  with  every 
change,  discussing  some  deep  problem  of 
human  life  or  dissecting  a  pseudo-scientific 
foible,  or  illuminating  a  scientific  thought 
some  other  man  has  cloudily  expressed,  or 
cutting  into  some  current  fallacy  of  modern 
education  or  politics  or  religion,  making  an 
excision  as  deft  as  it  is  scientifically  accurate. 
He  is  as  zestful  as  a  skilful  surgeon  over  some 
remarkable  case  when  he  dissects  a  limb  or 
the  main  trunk  of  theology,  and  he  scarcely 
considers  anesthetics  necessary  in  such  an 
instance;  but  no  man  is  more  reverent  in 
the  presence  of  true  religion.  He  is  never 
happier  than  in  a  care-free  romp  with  a  merry 
child,  but  he  meets  the  most  distinguished 
scientist  with  the  gravest  dignity. 

In  any  discussion  of  his  own  work,  Mr. 
Burbank  likes  best  of  all  to  have  specific, 
definite  questions  asked.  The  answers  come 
without  hesitation  and  in  clear,  understandable 
language.  From  time  to  time,  when  he  first 
began  selling  his  new  creations,  he  issued 
catalogues  descriptive  of  new  fruits  and 
flowers.  They  were  models  of  their  kind  and 
greatly  enjoyed  by  people  in  all  quarters  of 

308 


Cultivating  the  mammoth  pieplant.     Some  leaves  are  three  to  four 
feet  across.     Mr.  Burbank  is  the  central  figure 


HIS   PERSONALITY 

the  globe.  Captivating  in  their  style  and 
alluring  in  their  contents,  they  were  never 
marred  by  overstatement  of  excellencies.  One 
is  constantly  struck  by  the  clarity  of  his  con- 
versation and  the  freshness  and  vividness  of 
his  language,  and,  while  this  has  usually  been 
the  gift  of  all  great  scientific  thinkers,  it  is  es- 
pecially noteworthy  in  this  instance  because  of 
the  fact  that  while  he  was  well  grounded  in 
rudiments  and  has  read  widely,  he  has  not  had 
the  exhaustive  literary  training  of  the  schools. 

He  closed  one  of  the  very  few  public 
addresses  he  has  ever  given,  in  this  wise;  the 
words  are  characteristic: 

"  Who  can  estimate  the  elevating  and  refin- 
ing influences  and  moral  value  of  flowers,  with 
all  their  graceful  forms  and  bewitching  shades 
and  combinations  of  colors  and  exquisitely 
varied  perfumes?  These  silent  influences  are 
unconsciously  felt  even  by  those  who  do  not 
appreciate  them  consciously,  and  thus  with 
better  and  still  better  fruits,  nuts,  grains  and 
flowers  will  the  earth  be  transformed,  man's 
thoughts  turned  from  the  base,  destructive 
forces  into  the  nobler  productive  ones,  which 
will  lift  him  to  higher  planes  of  action  toward 

309 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

that  happy  day  when  man  shall  offer  his 
brother  man,  not  bullets  and  bayonets,  but 
richer  grains,  better  fruits  and  fairer  flowers. 

"These  lines  were  penned  among  the  heights 
of  the  Sierras,  while  resting  on  the  original 
material  from  which  this  planet  was  made. 
Thousands  of  ages  have  passed,  and  it  still 
remains  unchanged.  In  it  no  fossils  or  any 
trace  of  past  organic  life  are  ever  found,  nor 
could  any  exist,  for  the  world -creative  heat 
was  too  intense.  Among  these  dizzy  heights 
of  rock,  ice -cleft,  glacier -plowed  and  water- 
worn,  we  stand  face  to  face  with  the  first  and 
latest  pages  of  world  creation,  for  now  we  see 
also  tender  and  beautiful  flowers  adding  grace 
of  form  and  color  to  the  grisly  walls,  and  far 
away  down  the  slopes  stand  the  giant  trees, 
oldest  of  all  living  things,  embracing  all  of 
human  history ;  but  even  their  lives  are  but  as 
a  watch -tick  since  the  stars  first  shone  on 
these  barren  rocks,  before  the  evolutive  forces 
had  so  gloriously  transfigured  the  face  of  our 
planet  home." 

At  the  dedication  of  a  park  which  had  been 
given  to  the  children  of  a  neighboring  town, 
in  the  suburbs  of  San  Francisco,  in  memory 

310 


HIS   PERSONALITY 

of  a  child  of  the  donor,  Mr.  Burbank  made  an 
address  which  I  may  briefly  quote  from  as 
indicative  not  only  of  his  devotion  to  children 
but  of  his  ability  to  express  a  beautiful 
thought  in  graceful  fashion: 

"  I  love  sunshine,  the  blue  sky,  trees,  flowers, 
mountains,  green  meadows,  sunny  brooks,  the 
ocean  when  its  waves  softly  ripple  along  the 
sandy  beach,  or  when  pounding  the  rocky 
cliffs  with  its  thunder  and  roar,  the  birds  of 
the  field,  waterfalls,  the  rainbow,  the  dawn, 
the  noonday,  and  the  evening  sunset, — but 
children  above  them  all.  Trees,  plants, 
flowers,  they  are  always  educators  in  the  right 
direction,  they  always  make  us  happier  and 
better,  and,  if  well  grown,  they  speak  of  loving 
care  and  respond  to  it  as  far  as  is  in  their 
power;  but  in  all  this  world  there  is  nothing  so 
appreciative  as  children, — these  sensitive,  quiv- 
ering creatures  of  sunshine,  smiles,  showers 
and  tears." 

I  may  not  better  illustrate  one  phase  of  this 
many-sided  man  than  to  say,  on  the  testimony 
of  a  friend,  that  the  first  time  he  looked  upon 
the  noble  sweep  of  the  Yosemite  Valley  he 
did  not  go  into  an  ecstasy  of  expletives,  but 

311 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

stood  apart  with  his  eyes  filled  with  tears;  or 
to  note  that  he  counts  no  day  completed  in 
which  he  has  not  said  a  cheery  good -morning 
to  his  aged  mother,  now  faring  near  the 
century  line,  looked  after  her  with  the  utmost 
devotion  during  all  its  hours,  and  tenderly 
kissed  her  good-night  at  the  going  down  of  the 
sun,  even  though  she  sees  such  acts  but  dimly 
through  the  long  mists  of  the  years. 

1  have  talked  with  many  townsmen  of  this 
man,  those  who  have  known  him  in  lean 
seasons  when  struggle  was  constant  and  the 
current  strong,  in  other  days  when  the  praise 
of  the  world  flowed  high  but  never  to  sub- 
merge him ;  and  never  a  one  but  has  been 
quick  with  the  deep,  strong  words  of  praise 
for  their  townsman  and  neighbor, — not  one 
but  who,  in  quaint,  crude  words  or  more  elabo- 
rate phrase,  has  pronounced  him  a  man  whose 
life  stands  above  reproach,  whose  character  is 
of  the  noblest  type,  whose  heart  is  overflowing 
with  that  kindness  that  ever  makes  for  malice 
toward  none  and  charity  for  all.  It  sometimes 
happens  that  a  man  assigned  by  the  world  to 
a  high  position  is  held  in  scant  esteem  by 
the  common  people  among  whom  he  lives; 


HIS    PERSONALITY 

but  1  venture  to  say  no  man  in  public  or 
private  life  has  arisen  who  holds  so  high  a 
place  in  the  affection  of  his  neighbors  and 
fellow  townsmen  as  this  man,  whom  they  have 
come  to  regard  as  the  incarnation  of  the 
highest  and  best  in  human  life.  Whoso  holds 
this  praise  too  high  shall  but  stay  some  days 
in  the  fair  little  city  of  Santa  Rosa,  a  very 
bower  of  roses  in  a  valley  of  beauty  set  in 
the  midst  of  the  emerald  hills,  and  from  day 
to  day  make  search  for  one  who  shall  be 
out  of  harmony  with  these  words.  Or  whoso 
wishes  to  know  how  deeply  he  impresses 
those  who  see  him  but  for  an  hour  or  a  day, 
by  the  sincerity  of  his  speech  and  the  win- 
someness  of  his  welcome,  let  him  search 
among  the  tens  of  thousands  who  have  paid 
him  call,  be  they  high  of  rank  or  humble, 
and  see  if  he  may  find  one  among  them 
who  does  not  say: 

"He  was  a  man,  take  him  for  all  in  all, 
I  shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again." 

So  insistent  are  the  demands  of  his  work,— 
for  there  is  no  time  in  the  year  when  some 
test   is  not   in  progress  requiring  immediate 
and  personal  attention, — his  vacations  are  few 

313 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

in  number  and  of  short  duration.  In  thirty- 
five  years  he  has  not  taken  a  vacation  of  a 
month's  time  at  one  period.  He  has  never 
visited  the  East  but  three  times,  and  then 
only  on  hurried  trips.  He  has  been  invited  to 
go  to  Europe  to  be  the  guest  of  prominent 
scientific  men,  but  he  has  never  been  able  to 
accept  on  account  of  the  length  of  time  he 
would  be  compelled  to  remain  away  from 
his  work.  His  recreations  are  few  in  number, 
but  no  one  finds  keener  enjoyment  than  he 
in  such  ones  as  he  chooses, —  a  small  party 
of  jolly  friends,  a  visit  to  some  friend  in  a 
near-by  town,  a  romp  with  a  little  child,  a  day's 
wandering,  at  rare  intervals,  amidst  the  city's 
kaleidoscopic  scenes,  a  long,  strong  tramp  up 
the  mountains,  a  day  at  the  sea  of  which 
he  is  so  passionately  fond, —  these  are  his  chief 
stands  for  recuperation  in  the  long,  hard  battle. 
And  yet  it  is  not  a  wholly  apt  figure;  for 
his  life  is  rather  one  series  of  noble  triumphs, 
all  adding  to  the  sum  of  human  happiness. 
He  is  particularly  fond  of  the  society  of 
young  people,  and  he  is  held  in  the  highest 
esteem  by  them ;  with  them  he  steadily 
renews  his  youth  ;  he  is  of  the  type  that  never 

314 


HIS   PERSONALITY 

grows   old.     All    manner   of  fun   appeals   to  I 
him,  but    no    fun, —  so  called, —  over    which    \ 
there  is  not  spread  the  sweetest  delicacy. 

In  all  his  relations  with  others  he  is  charac- 
terized by  a  winning  gentleness.  And  yet  he 
is  swiftly  roused  at  any  show  of  deceit  or 
sham.  Kindliness,  charity,  modesty,  tender- 
ness ;  intuition ;  enormous  capacity  for  work ; 
unswerving  devotion  to  a  friend;  intense 
absorption ;  unwearying  application ;  steadfast- 
ness in  his  adherence  to  the  right  no  matter 
how  others  may  oppose,  but  with  chivalrous 
tolerance  of  those  who  differ ;  a  broad,  cheerful 
outlook  upon  life,  ever  seeking  to  find  the 
good  and  ignore  the  evil;  a  wide,  deep 
sympathy  for  all  that  makes  for  uprightness 
in  individual,  civic  and  national  life; — above 
all,  the  subtle  soul  of  a  poet  joined  to  the 
throbbing  heart  of  a  man:  these  are  among 
the  attributes  that  mark  the  personality  of 
Luther  Burbank. 

At  times  he  is  much  given  to  epigrammatic 
speech:  these  are  among  many  expressions: 

"No  man  ever  did  a  great  work  for  hire." 

"I  hope  that  no  one  will  ever  be  worse  for 
my  having  lived 

315 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

"Ignorance  is  the  only  unpardonable  sin." 

"The  man  who  cannot  say  no,  never  gets 
the  opportunity  to  say  yes." 

"The  greatest  happiness  in  the  world  is  to 
make  others  happy;  the  next  greatest  is  to 
make  them  think." 

On  the  wall  above  his  head  where  he  sits  at 
meat  is  a  little  placard  which  reads  —  the 
words  from  Emerson: 

"Write  it  on  your  heart  that  every  day  is 
the  best  day  in  the  year.  .  .  .  No  man  has 
learned  anything  rightly  until  he  knows  that 
every  day  is  Doomsday.  .  .  .  Today  is  a 
king  in  disguise.  Today  always  looks  mean  to 
the  thoughtless,  in  the  face  of  a  uniform 
experience  that  all  good  and  great  and  happy 
actions  are  made  up  precisely  of  those  blank 
todays.  Let  us  not  be  deceived,  let  us  unmask 
the  king  as  he  passes." 

No  man  could  have  done  all  the  marvelous 
acts  he  has  accomplished  in  the  ennoblement 
of  the  earth  unless  he  had  had  a  deep,  passion- 
ate love  for  all  that  is  beautiful.  Not  all  the 
years  of  unremitting  study  and  research  and 
tremendous  toil  have  dulled,  in  the  slightest 
degree,  this  love  for  the  beautiful,  whether  it 

316 


Mr.  Burbank  pollinating  the  blossoms  of  a  plum  tree 


HIS   PERSONALITY 

be  found  in  nature,  or  poetry,  or  art,  or  music, 
or  in  the  rare  blossoming  of  a  human  life. 

The  world  will  never  seem  quite  the  same 
to  you,  after  you  have  seen  this  man  in  the 
midst  of  his  lifework;  the  world  will  never  be 
the  same  again,  after  his  having  lived  in  it ;  it 
will  have  sustained  an  irreparable  loss  on  the 
day  he  shall  say  it  good-bye. 


317 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  PLAN  BOOKS 

XT  is  doubtful  if  there  is  a  single  scien- 
-*•  tific  man  among  the  hundreds  from  this 
country  and  Europe,  who  have  visited  Mr. 
Burbank  since  his  work  became  more  widely 
known,  or  a  single  person  among  the  many 
thousands  of  casual  visitors,  who  ever  heard 
of  his  plan  books. 

In  conversation  with  a  university  pro- 
fessor who  was  much  interested  in  Mr. 
Burbank's  work,  but  who,  in  common  with 
some  others,  doubted  if  he  were  "scientific," 
this  question  was  put  to  him  by  a  layman : 

"If  a  man  have  great  imagination,  re- 
markable intuition,  deep  and  wide  knowledge, 
persistence,  absolute  sincerity ;  and  if  this 
man  accomplishes  what  no  other  man  or  set 
of  men  has  ever  accomplished  in  a  given 
department  in  the  molding  of  old  and  the 
creating  of  new  forms  of  life, —  is  this  the 
furnishing  of  a  scientific  man?" 

318 


THE    PLAN    BOOKS 

"In  part, —  such  a  man  should  logically 
be  a  scientist ;  but  the  records,  how  can  he 
establish  that  what  he  has  accomplished  came 
through  clearly  defined  lines  ?  In  other  words, 
has  he  ample  and  well  -  authenticated  notes 
and  data  to  prove  that  what  he  says  is  true  ? " 

"  In  answer,  suppose  that  you  have  first 
his  word  for  it  that  he  has  accomplished 
everything  in  certain  definite  ways,— 

"Yes,"  comes  the  interruption,  "that  is 
just  the  point,  his  w^ord  for  it.  Now,  he  may 
be  absolutely  honest,  but  ordinary  men  for- 
get, they  are  influenced  at  a  given  point 
where  their  memory  is  not  clear  by  something 
quite  outside, —  they  become  misty  and  they 
cannot  tell  how  far  they  may  be  led  astray. 
I  find  more  and  more  in  class-room  work 
and  in  preparing  material  for  publication, 
that  I  cannot  rely  upon  memory." 

"  But  suppose  it  is  not  an  ordinary  man, 
one  who  does  not  forget,  who  has  a  memory 
as  marvelous  as  his  works  ? " 

"  Granted ;  but  let  him  try  to  prove  that 
he  followed  a  given  course.  How  would  Mr. 
Burbank,  for  example,  prove  to  me  that  he 
took  certain  steps  in  a  given  test?" 

319 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

Then  came  a  consideration  of  the  plan 
books  of  Mr.  Burbank,  the  most  curiously 
interesting  documents  perhaps  ever  kept  by 
a  scientific  man,  a  complete  refutation  in 
themselves  of  the  doubter; — the  professor 
had  never  heard  of  them. 

While  these  plan  books  were  designed  with 
no  thought  of  scientific  record  as  such,  and 
are  by  no  means  such  elaborate  records  as 
would  have  been  kept  had  completeness  been 
the  aim,  they  are  essentially  and  consistently 
scientific.  They  are  a  signal  refutation  of 
the  contentions  of  a  good  many  scientific  men, 
who,  like  the  university  professor,  have  been 
unstinted  in  their  praise  of  Mr.  Burbank's 
achievements,  but  who  have  been  unable  to 
see  their  way  clear  to  admit  him  to  their 
charmed  circle.  Truth  to  say,  though,  in 
passing,  they  were  all  unaware  that  he,  like 
all  really  great  men  in  science,  dwelt  apart, 
beyond  the  walls  of  precedent  and  far  across 
the  stagnant  moat  of  mere  scientific  record. 

These  plan  books  are  a  clear,  adequate, 
comprehensive  record  of  the  chief  events  in 
the  life  history  of  every  test  of  importance 
Mr.  Burbank  has  undertaken.  They  are  not 

320 


THE   PLAN   BOOKS 

as  full  or  as  complete  as  he  could  have  wished ; 
time  was  not  given  and  money  was  not  at 
hand  to  provide  for  the  recording  of  all  the 
interesting  minor  details.  It  must  steadily 
be  borne  in  mind  that  this  great  work  has 
been  carried  on  at  a  constant  financial  loss, 
and  that  every  available  cent  of  money  has 
been  required  for  the  actual  expenses  of 
the  tests  themselves.  Still,  in  addition  to  all 
the  demands  upon  him,  he  has  kept  up  these 
plan  book  records  year  in  and  year  out, 
recording  in  them  step  by  step  the  essential 
larger  details  of  the  life  he  has  been  molding. 

While  they  are  curiously  constructed,  as 
unique  as  the  man,  they  are  definite,  accurate, 
indisputable,  scientific, —  the  most  devoted 
adherent  to  scientific  nomenclature  could  not 
have  been  more  conscientiously  accurate. 
Naturally,  they  were  not  made  for  the  general 
public.  They  form  a  private  record  of  the 
life  history  of  the  plants  under  test  so  pecu- 
liarly constructed,  even  though  absolutely 
logical  in  their  sequences,  they  would,  in 
great  part,  be  unintelligible  without  inter- 
pretation to  any  but  the  one  who  made  them. 

Mr.  Burbank   is   in   the   midst   of  a  great 

321 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

test.  Events  of  supreme  importance  in  the 
many  tests  under  way  are  happening, — things 
move  with  relentless  rapidity.  Certain  data 
must  be  at  once  recorded.  He  has  a  paste- 
board box  at  hand  —  he  tears  it  to  pieces, 
and  on  its  brown  surface  in  a  bold,  strong 
hand  he  makes  his  notation ;  or  it  may  be  on 
the  back  of  an  old  envelope,  or  it  may 
be  in  the  field  note -book  he  always  carries  in 
the  midst  of  such  work, —  it  matters  not  what 
the  medium,  the  record  is  the  thing,  and  it 
is  made  with  all  haste.  It  may  be  the  turn 
certain  sets  of  leaves  are  taking,  departing  in 
the  hybrid  from  the  ways  of  their  ancestors ; 
it  may  be  the  size  or  color  or  texture  or 
date  of  ripening,  or  ultimate  rejection  of  a 
fruit;  it  may  be  a  record  of  the  shape  of  its 
seed -cavity  or  an  outline  of  its  hemisphere ; 
or  it  may  be  a  note  as  to  the  tree  trunk's 
development,  or  its  departure  from  the  normal, 
or  some  point  of  importance  in  the  history 
of  a  graft,  or  the  acidity,  or  sweetness,  or 
uniqueness  of  the  fruit  itself.  It  may  be  the 
date  of  the  opening  of  a  flower,  the  length 
of  its  petals,  the  shape  they  assume,  the  height 
of  the  stalk  upon  a  given  date,  the  details  of 


THE   PLAN   BOOKS 

its  ancestry  showing  how  and  when  its  parents 
were  bred  and  their  names  and  those  of  their 
own  forbears.  So  it  goes  throughout  the 
whole  life  history  of  a  given  plant,  be  it 
berry  or  flower  or  tree  or  vine.  All  the  facts 
are  accompanied  by  dates,  nothing  is  left 
to  conjecture. 

Sometimes  the  field  record  is  transferred 
to  the  regular  plan  book,  sometimes  the 
information  is  preserved  in  its  original  form 
and  placed  between  the  leaves  of  the  plan 
book,  which  holds  many  such  loose  sheets. 
A  whole  page  in  the  plan  book  may  contain 
data  as  to  one  test,  sometimes  continued  to 
another  page.  The  book  for  the  Sebastopol 
tests  is  a  large  ledger  nearly  two  feet  in 
length.  Any  one  of  the  pages  containing 
data  as  to  a  given  test  is  curiously  interesting. 
It  is  covered  from  top  to  bottom  with 
writing,  dates  and  diagrams.  These  diagrams, 
or  it  may  be  mere  ellipses  or  circles  to  enclose 
certain  related  facts,  are  usually  drawn  in 
red  ink  in  the  midst  of  the  text.  They  may 
run  out  into  the  margin  of  the  book,  or  they 
may  be  in  the  body  of  the  page.  They  are 
irregular  in  form  and  location.  They  are,  how- 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

ever,  like  a  high -school  scholar's  grammar 
diagram,  all  logically  connected.  The  page 
itself  presents  a  strangely  crowded  effect,  a 
veritable  maze.  I  considered  a  sample  page 
somewhat  in  detail,  and  found  that  it  had 
forty  distinct  diagrams  and  figures  and  over 
six  hundred  words  of  text.  Page  after  page 
of  this  matter  appears.  From  time  to  time 
additions  are  made  as  the  plant  progresses. 
When  the  final  test  comes  and  the  plant  is 
finished,  heavy  cross -lines  are  drawn  over  the 
page — the  end  has  been  reached. 

On  one  page  is  a  large  circle  perhaps  seven 
inches  across.  It  represents  the  branch -spread 
of  a  tree.  All  over  the  circle  are  jottings 
showing  where  certain  grafts  are  located  on 
the  tree,  so  that  there  can  be  no  mistake.  On 
the  grafts,  too,  may  be  notations  in  the  form 
of  tags,  but  the  record  of  the  plan  book  shows 
absolutely  where  the  graft  is, — if  the  tag  be 
lost,  the  record  remains.  Sometimes  the  nota- 
tions are  so  many  upon  a  page  that  the  writing 
is  well  -  nigh  microscopic  inside  certain  tiny 
squares  that  are  drawn  in  red  or  black  ink. 
Here  are  kept,  too,  absolute  data  as  to  cross- 
ings in  hybridization.  The  parents  on  both 

324 


THE   PLAN   BOOKS 

sides  and  their  ancestry  and  the  essential  life 
history  of  the  progeny  are  given;  nothing  is 
left  to  chance.  Many  a  scientific  man  has 
been  utterly  at  a  loss  to  know  how  this  man 
knew  what  he  was  doing :  this  is  the  first 
public  mention  ever  made  of  the  manner  by 
which  he  makes  the  records  which  scientific 
men  have  believed  lacking. 

Now  and  then  there  will  be  a  large  open 
page  on  which  will  be  a  number  of  diagrams, 
or  circles,  all  connected  with  each  other  and 
containing  but  a  few  words  to  each,  showing 
how  a  certain  plant  has  been  bred  up  and 
what  important  facts  developed  in  the  course 
of  its  history.  T^iese  diagrams  are  in  red  ink 
and  the  writing  in  pencil  or  black  ink.  When 
the  end  of  a  test  is  nearing  and  a  certain  plant 
has  been  selected, — it  may  be  from  among  a 
hundred  thousand,  as  the  one  best  of  all, — its 
record  is  accompanied  by  one  or  more  large 
double  crosses  marked  in  deep  black  ink,  which 
shows  that  this  one  plant  is  superior  to  all 
others. 

When  a  fruit,  for  example,  has  reached  the 
point  that  it  appears  to  be  worthy  of  record, — 
it  may  be  a  peach,  chosen  from  ten  thousand 

325 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

seedlings  or  hybrids, — a  page  is  given  up  to  it. 
Here  the  method  of  record  is  extremely 
interesting  and  novel.  The  fruit  is  cut  in  half 
and  laid  in  its  fresh,  juicy  state  upon  the  upper 
left-hand  corner  of  the  sheet.  It  is  pressed 
firmly  down  upon  the  paper  and  a  pencil  is 
drawn  around  it,  defining  absolutely  its  size. 
There  is  no  recourse  here  to  a  photograph  or 
to  a  sketch, — he  is  after  absolute  fact,  and  the 
fruit  is  the  fact.  Another  rapidly  drawn  line 
on  the  inside  discloses  the  seed -cavity.  I  have 
seen  one  of  these  records  where  the  stain  of 
the  fresh  fruit  had  remained  upon  the  paper 
for  five  years. 

In  the  upper  -right -hand  corner  of  the  sheet 
is  a  name,  some  strange  whimsical  name  which 
is  used  to  identify  the  fruit  until  such  time  as 
it  shall  come  up  before  the  world  in  finished 
shape  for  its  final  christening.  For  a  long 
time  Mr.  Burbank  tried  using  numbers,  but 
this  proved  impracticable,  not  only  because  of 
the  liability  to  mistakes  in  transcribing  but 
because  the  numbers  became  so  large,  on 
account  of  the  extent  of  the  tests,  that  they 
were  unwieldy.  One  mistake  in  a  number,  also, 
might  be  fatal  to  the  whole  test.  Again  and 

326 


THE   PLAN   BOOKS 

again  in  these  plan  books  appears  tne  same 
persistent  adherence  to  accuracy,  indeed  to 
scientific  accuracy,  if  you  will,  a  supreme 
devotion  to  the  definite.  So,  numbers  not 
proving  satisfactory,  he  took  fantastic  names. 
Sometimes  it  is  the  name  of  a  workman  who 
is  near  at  hand  when  the  test  is  being  made  of 
record,  but  more  often  a  peculiarity  of  the 
fruit  or  flower  itself.  Here  are  some  names 
selected  from  among  many: 

"Long  Nose,"  "Pan  Sweet,"  "Jim,"  "The 
Best  Yet,"  "Christmas  Giant,"  "Hill  Top 
Sweet,"  "Weeping  Yellow,"  "Rice  Seed," 
"Snowball,"  "Old  Juicy,"  "Beauty,"  "Left- 
over Sweet,"  "Miracle,"  "Giant,"  "Climax." 

Now  and  then  upon  some  page  will  appear 
at  the  end  of  a  test  two  words ;  they  sum  up 
the  results  of  perhaps  a  dozen  years  of  testing: 
"No  good."  No  matter  how  attractive  or  how 
nutritious  a  new  fruit,  if  it  has  failed  to  come 
up  to,  and  go  a  little  beyond  the  fruits  from 
which  it  was  bred,  it  must  be  rejected,  and 
the  two  words  of  supreme  condemnation  must 
stand  forever  against  it. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  data  on  a  giyen 
test,  it  may  be  noted  that  upon  one  sheet 

mi 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

devoted  to  a  flower  there  were  notes  as  to  the 
character  and  substance  of  the  petals;  the 
number  of  the  petals ;  the  width  of  the  whole 
flower;  width  of  a  single  petal  and  its  length 
measured  to  the  one -sixteenth  of  an  inch;  the 
width  of  the  central  disc  from  which  the  petals 
spring,  with  its  color;  the  average  of  a  given 
number  of  blossoms;  points  as  to  the  stem 
growth,  and  so  on;  with  dates  of  observations 
and  the  like.  For  the  next  season  there  were 
similar  notations  showing  what  changes  had 
taken  place  in  the  upward  movement  of  the 
plant.  One  page  was  devoted  to  data  as  to 
a  certain  fruit, — when  its  buds  appeared,  when 
they  began  to  swell,  when  they  burst  open, 
when  the  flowers  came,  when  the  fruit  started, 
wrhen  it  ripened,  peculiarities  and  irregularities, 
and  the  like.  On  a  page  devoted  to  a  certain 
lily  test  are  close  and  accurate  data  as  to  the 
shape  of  the  bulb  at  a  given  period,  the 
description  of  the  scales,  their  character,  all 
the  essential  facts  as  to  the  condition  at  vari- 
ous stages  of  the  test.  Here  and  there  will 
be  other  notations  under  date  showing  what 
other  allied  plants  were  doing  at  the  same 
day,  noted  down  for  comparison 

328 


THE   PLAN   BOOKS 

On  a  work  of  such  colossal  scale  another 
point  of  definiteness  can  not  be  overlooked, — 
the  precise  location  of  the  various  plants 
under  test.  For  this  purpose  there  are  concise 
memoranda  showing  where  each  selected  plant 
is  growing.  Sometimes  it  will  be  a  certain 
direction  in  so  many  feet  from  some  certain 
fixed  monument,  as  a  tree,  or  a  fence -post,  or 
the  corner  of  a  conservatory,  or  what  not. 
The  plant,  when  it  is  finally  chosen  from 
among  its  thousands  of  fellows,  is  given  a 
white  streamer  of  cloth  to  distinguish  it,  and 
there  are  the  usual  inscribed  stakes  to 
identify  it,  but  any  of  these  might  be  de- 
stroyed and  the  plan  books  contain  the 
definite  means  for  determining  just  where 
the  plant  is  growing.  When  so  very  many 
tests  are  under  way  at  the  same  time  and 
the  aggregate  number  of  the  selected  plants 
is  so  .large,  it  becomes  necessary  to  have  pre- 
cision and  definiteness  in  some  indisputable 
form. 

Now  and  again,  sheets  will  be  found  in 
which  the  stages  of  a  plant's  progress  are 
indicated  by  large  capital  letters — A  B  C , 
and  so  on — distributed  over  the  page  and  serv- 

329 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

ing  as  quick  guides  to  lead  to  any  given  step 
in  the  test.  Everywhere  throughout  the  plan 
books  are  notations  showing  the  retrogression 
of  a  plant  under  test.  Deficiencies  no  less  than 
excellencies  must  be  noted,  in  order  that  the 
life  history  may  be  complete. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  pages  is  that 
devoted  to  the  cactus  experiments,  recording 
the  kinds  of  cactus  under  test,  how  they  were 
crossed,  dates  as  to  planting,  points  as  to 
development  step  by  step,  and  the  like.  Some- 
times it  will  take  an  entire  page  to  give  the 
mere  facts  as  to  a  plant's  ancestry,  showing  in 
regular  sequence  the  hybridizing  steps  it  has 
taken,  the  region  of  the  world  from  which  it 
came,  and  the  like. 

The  plan  book  for  the  preliminary  tests  at 
Santa  Rosa,  where  much  of  the  work  has  its 
beginning,  is  smaller  than  the  Sebastopol  book 
but  none  the  less  interesting.  Here  are  re- 
corded the  earlier  life-history  events  when  the 
seeds  are  being  sown  and  transplanted.  Some 
of  the  pages  of  this  book  are  an  intricate  maze 
of  notations  and  diagrams,  all  presenting  a 
bewildering  mass  of  data  to  the  on -looker  but 
all  clear  and  definite  and  instantly  available  to 

330 


THE    PLAN   BOOKS 

the  man  who  made  the  records.  In  some 
cases  the  data  of  the  Santa  Rosa  books  are 
even  more  minute  and  particular  than  those 
of  the  larger  tests. 

Mr.  Burbank  has  a  good  many  such  books 
as  these,  covering  the  experiments  of  many 
years,  embracing  many  thousands  of  words  of 
notation.  For  some  years  when  he  was 
struggling  to  make  both  ends  meet,  he  tested 
seeds  for  eastern  dealers,  receiving  ten  cents 
for  each  variety  tested.  This  was  work  re- 
quiring accuracy  and  record  of  the  strictest 
type:  like  his  records  of  after  years,  it  was 
scientifically  and  commercially  exact. 

It  will  be  seen,  the  more  closely  one  studies 
the  scope  and  sweep  of  this  great  work,  that 
accuracy  of  record  on  essentials  is  imperative. 
A  single  error  in  this  would  throw  out  of  gear, 
so  to  speak,  the  whole  machinery  of  a  test. 
The  creator  of  the  new  fruit  or  vegetable  or 
flower  would  be  utterly  unable  to  tell  whether 
he  was  proceeding  upon  definite  lines  or 
running  through  a  whole  series  haphazard, 
intermixing  everywhere  into  other  tests  and 
rendering  the  whole  invalid.  First  and  above 
all,  in  a  work  of  breeding  carried  on  upon  a 

331 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

small  scale,  accuracy  of  record  must  be  had ; 
how  much  greater  the  need  when  the  scope  of 
the  work  transcends  that  of  all  the  plant- 
breeders  who  have  preceded  him.  A  hint  of 
the  diversity  that  develops  in  a  given  test  and 
a  suggestion  of  the  forces  that  must  be  kept  in 
control  and  whose  movements  must  be  noted 
are  seen  in  the  fact  that  as  much  as  a  pint  of 
pollen  has  been  used  in  cross-fertilizing  the 
flowers  in  a  single  lily  test.  The  pollen  from 
one  flower  would  be  not  more  than  could  be 
held  upon  the  tip  of  a  pen-knife  blade,  yet 
every  one  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
plants  that  come  from  this  gigantic  crossing 
must  come  under  the  eye  of  the  one  who 
created  them. 

It  should  also  be  borne  in  mind  that 
thousands  of  photographs  have  been  made  in 
the  midst  of  the  tests,  and,  while  not  so 
complete  as  the  photographic  records  under 
the  new  order  of  things,  they  are  yet  im- 
portant data  in  establishing  the  sequence  of 
events.  With  the  provision  of  ampler  funds 
for  the  carrying  on  of  the  work,  details  will 
be  recorded  much  more  completely  and  the 
records  will  prove  invaluable,  both  scien- 

332 


THE   PLAN   BOOKS 

tifically  and  economically.  But  they  will  not 
be  more  strictly  scientific,  even  in  the  eyes 
of  the  academician,  than  these  records  which 
have  been  kept  of  leading  events  in  the  life 
history  of  some  of  the  most  wonderful  plants 
that  even  were  given  birth  upon  the  earth. 
If  Mr.  Burbank  had  taken  time  to  answer 
every  criticism  of  his  work  or  methods  made 
by  pseudo  -  scientific  men  of  inadequate 
knowledge,  he  would  have  wasted  many  days 
that  have  been  given  to  the  ennoblement  of 
the  physical  earth  upon  lines  as  strictly 
scientific  as  those  followed  by  the  most  dis- 
tinguished scientists  of  this  or  any  other 
century.  But  as  real  scientists  have  come  to 
know  the  man  and  to  study  his  methods, 
they  have  not  hesitated  to  give  him  as  great 
honor  for  his  scientific  attainments  as  for  his 
marvelous  accomplishments  for  the  welfare 
of  the  race.  I  do  not  know  that  Mr.  Burbank 
ever  told  any  scientific  man  who  ever  visited 
him  that  he  kept  these  plan  books.  It  is 
more  than  likely  that  he  never  mentioned  the 
fact ;  it  is  only  an  incident  in  his  lifework. 
No  doubt,  had  he  given  the  matter  thought, 
telling  the  scientific  men  that  such  records 

333 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

existed,  it  would  have  been  welcome  informa- 
tion, an  earnest  to  them  of  the  scientific 
attainments  of  the  man. 

But  the  fact  that  he  has  kept  records,— 
absolute  and  academic,  if  you  will,  even  if 
far  less  complete  than  he  would  have  wished,— 
this  is  not  what  gives  him  place  in  the  ranks 
of  scientists.  To  find  reason  for  this  rank  we 
must  look  beyond  the  recording  of  data.  Any 
man  with  keen  eyes  and  a  note-book  may 
make  records  —  the  discovery  of  new  truths 
and  the  interpretation  of  old  ones,  the  de- 
struction of  errors,  the  illumination  of  earth's 
secret  places,  the  extension  of  human  knowl- 
edge,— these  lie  beyond. 


334 


1 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THEORIES  AND  CONCLUSIONS 

~|~  OOKING  backward  over  the  achieve- 
-*-^  ments  of  Mr.  Burbank,  one  might  natu- 
rally be  led  to  ask,  What  of  the  inner  life  of 
the  man ;  has  it,  too,  shown  marked  lines  of 
development  ? 

The  physical  life  of  the  world  has  been 
changed  by  him  as  perhaps  no  other  man 
who  has  ever  lived  has  changed  it.  In  his 
study  of  the  subtler  life  of  Nature  he  has 
arrived  at  conclusions  and  developed  theories 
and  disproved  so-called  laws  in  so  significant 
a  manner  as  to  entitle  him  to  consideration 
among  the  foremost  thinkers  of  his  generation. 

No  man,  however  prosaic  by  Nature,  could 
share  Mr.  Burbank's  life -long  series  of  ex- 
periments in  plant  improvement  and  plant 
creation  without  being  more  or  less  attracted 
to  and  influenced  by  the  inner  life  of  Nature — 
the  subtle,  intangible,  but  none  the  less  real 
life  upon  which  man  has  been  building 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

theories  and  laying  out  laws  since  the  dawn 
of  creation.  To  Mr.  Burbank  himself,  with 
his  highly  organized,  sensitive,  intellectual  life 
and  his  intense  imagination,  these  subtle 
forces  of  Nature  have  been  of  absorbing 
interest.  Through  the  light  of  experience  he 
has  seen  with  refined  vision  far  into  the 
strange,  deep  life  whose  outward  manifesta- 
tions have  been  the  field  of  his  life-work. 

He  has  not  studied  in  an  extensive  and 
expensive  laboratory,  nor  confined  himself 
to  the  comfortabLe  atmosphere  of  a  conserva- 
tory. In  point  of  fact,  he  has  had  no 
laboratory  at  all,  save  that  of  the  earth  and 
the  air  and  the  sun.  He  has  lived  among  no 
spectacular  surroundings.  He  has  had  the 
seeds,  he  has  had  the  generations  of  plants, 
he  has  had  the  earth ;  he  has  used  these  seeds 
and  these  plants  and  the  earth  as  no  man 
ever  used  them  before. 

The  result  has  been  that  not  only  has  ne 
produced  all  these  wonderful  forms  of  life, 
but  that,  through  the  study  of  the  inner 
life  of  Nature,  he  has  arrived  at  conclusions 
radically  different  from  some  of  those  which 
may  have  been  matured  in  the  gentle  atmos- 

336 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS 

phere  of  the  laboratory,  or  in  the  calm 
seclusion  of  the  library.  He  has  not  been 
attempting  to  formulate  any  laws.  He  has 
not  set  out  to  overturn  the  conceptions  of 
other  men.  He  has  carried  forward  his  work 
with  passionate  eagerness  for  the  truth.  His 
creative  work  has  been  for  the  good  of 
the  world;  his  studies  have  also  been  for 
the  welfare  of  man,  never  for  the  glorification 
of  self.  They  have  never  been  entered  into 
with  the  spirit  of  the  academician,  or  with 
any  preconceived  theories  waiting  to  be 
put  into  laws.  Plain,  old-fashioned  truth 
has  been  his  seeking:  If,  in  reaching  the  goal, 
he  has  been  obliged  to  cast  aside  some  of 
the  impedimenta  of  the  scientists,  it  has  not 
been  in  anger,  but  because  of  haste. 

Very  early  in  his  career,  even  when  he  had 
but  begun  his  preliminary  business  life,  two 
words  ever  rang  in  his  ears,  How?  and  Why? 
Day  by  day  he  sent  these  words  forward 
into  the  hidden  realm  of  Nature,  and  day  by 
day  they  came  back  to  him  laden  with 
answers.  How  came  it  that  a  certain  plant 
upon  which  he  was  conducting  a  given 
experiment  had  gathered  to  itself  certain 

337 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

attributes  through  centuries  of  life,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  as  steadily  rejecting  other 
attributes;  just  as  successive  generations  of  a 
given  family  gather  and  reject  certain  family 
traits?  How  much  of  it  was  heredity,  how 
much  of  it  environment,  how  much  a  direct 
mingling  of  these  two,  how  much,  if  any, 
could  be  traced  to  neither? 

And  then  the  other  word,  Why?  Why 
was  all  this  done,  and  why  was  it  all  so 
persistently  veiled  from  human  eyes? 

In  the  midst  of  the  exacting  toil  as  he 
worked  among  his  plants,  this  constant  study 
of  Nature  broadened  his  mind.  Year  by  year 
his  sight  became  more  refined,  his  knowledge 
deeper.  He  read  much  upon  the  subject, 
particularly  Darwin.  He  made  the  most 
careful  study  of  the  conclusions  reached  by 
other  men  who  had  sought  for  the  secrets 
of  Nature's  life,  and  how  they  came  to  these 
conclusions.  Sometimes  noting  that  certain 
improbable  conclusions  had  been  reached 
from  certain  premises,  he  set  to  work  to 
discover  the  soundness  of  the  premises,  only 
to  find  that  they  were  unsafe  to  trust.  He 
early  discovered,  also,  that  some  of  the  men 

338 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS 

whose  rank  was  highest  in  the  departments 
of  science  most  nearly  related  to  his  work 
came  to  their  conclusions  from  inadequate 
data. 

For  example,  one  man  would  arrive  at  a 
certain  conclusion,  or  law,  if  he  chose  so  to 
designate  it,  from  the  facts  developed  in  a 
series  of  experiments  with  a  dozen  plants, 
carried  on  in  a  garden  or  a  conservatory. 
Possibly,  from  the  study  of  these  plants, 
their  habits,  their  changes  under  breeding 
and  selection,  these  conclusions  would  be 
held  absolute  and  applicable  to  a  far  wider 
field  than  that  in  which  these  few  individuals 
were  found.  Working  with  the  same  plant, 
a  flower  or  a  fruit  as  the  case  might  be, 
Mr.  Burbank  arrived  at  absolutely  opposite 
conclusions.  But,  in  place  of  a  dozen  plants, 
he  used  a  hundred  thousand;  in  place  of 
a  corner  in  a  garden  or  a  narrow  space  under 
the  glass  of  a  hothouse,  he  used  an  acre 
of  ground  in  the  open;  in  place  of  a  dozen 
distinct  plants  from  which  to  make  con- 
clusions, he  dealt  with  over  two  thousand 
species;  and  thus  he  was  able  to  command 
an  outlook  broader  than  man  had  ever 

339 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

had  before.  Willing  at  all  points  to  yield  the 
moment  he  was  convinced  of  error,  it  was 
yet  inevitable  that  his  own  sound  judgment 
should  tell  him  that  when  his  vast  experi- 
ments developed  results  diametrically  opposed 
to  the  results  of  the  scientists  working  in 
circumscribed  quarters,  he  was  bound  to 
stand  by  his  own.  Twelve  plants  in  a  given 
test  might  do  certain  things  in  concert  and 
thus  apparently  establish  a  law,  but  a  hundred 
thousand  plants,  indeed,  sometimes  a  million 
plants,  in  the  same  test  by  developing  ab- 
solutely contrary  conclusions,  utterly  set 
at  naught  the  significance  of  the  twelve. 
This  may  very  clearly  be  seen  in  the  results 
of  his  observations  along  the  lines  of  the 
so-called  Mendelian  Laws. 

Mendel,  a  parish  priest  in  Brim,  Austria^ 
a  devoted  student  of  botany,  prepared  a 
paper  in  the  year  1865  in  which  he  showed, 
as  a  result  of  his  years  of  investigation,  that 
certain  laws  were  bound  to  obtain  in  the 
breeding  of  plants.  When  two  peas,  for 
example,  were  crossed,  two  prevailing  sets 
of  characters  or  characteristics  were  developed. 
One  of  these  he  called  "dominant,"  certain 

340 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS 

prominent  characteristics  of  the  parent  dis- 
closed in  the  offspring,  as  color  of  flower, 
length  of  stem,  shape  of  leaves,  form  of  seed, 
arrangement  of  flowers,  and  so  on.  Certain 
other  parental  characters  he  called  "recessive," 
appearing  in  lesser  number  in  the  new 
plant,  or  disappearing  altogether.  These  char- 
acteristics appeared  in  the  offspring  in  an 
invariable  ratio,  that  of  three  to  one.  Seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  characters  of  the  new 
plant, — form,  color,  development  and  so  on, 
would  be  "dominant,"  twenty-five  per  cent 
would  be  "recessive."  The  recessive  char- 
acters thereafter  bred  true,  but  the  dominant 
ones  produced  progeny  one-third  genuine 
dominant, — which  also  bred  true  to  their 
own  type,  and  two-thirds  cross-breeds,  the 
latter,  when  self-fertilized,  giving  out  the 
old  ratio  of  seventy-five  per  cent  "dominant" 
characters,  twenty-five  per  cent  "recessive." 
These  "laws,"  so-called,  would  provide 
means  for  determining  in  advance  what 
results  would  follow  in  the  breeding  of 
plants;  and,  if  carried  forward  into  animal- 
breeding,  would  be  of  inconceivable  value. 
Quite  generally  throughout  Europe  these 

341 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

laws   have    been    accepted   by    the    scientific 
world. 

Over  and  over  again,  through  a  series 
of  many  years,  dealing  with  millions  of 
plants  and  upon  a  scale  which  dwarfs  all 
other  experimentation,  Mr.  Burbank  has 
disproved  these  laws.  In  the  street  in  front 
of  his  home  in  Santa  Rosa  stands  a  row  of 
walnut  trees,  already  referred  to.  These  may 
be  taken  as  a  fair  illustration  of  the  manifold 
facts  bearing  on  the  points  which  have  been 
developed  by  him.  Instead  of  following  any 
set  proportion  or  ratio,  the  parental  character- 
istics appeared  in  the  children  with  absolutely 
no  regard  for  law  or  even  order,  while  many 
new  characters  were  developed.  Thousands 
of  different  forms  were  assumed  by  the  leaves, 
for  example,  absolutely  unlike  the  forms 
of  the  parent  leaves.  The  nuts  which  came 
from  the  new  trees  were  often  wholly  unlike 
those  of  either  parent ;  indeed,  very  frequently, 
they  were  wholly  different  from  any  walnuts 
ever  known  before.  Sometimes  there  were 
five  leaves  on  a  stem,  sometimes  twenty  or 
thirty,  sometimes  fifty.  Many  assumed,  too, 
a  most  delicious  fragrance,  a  character  wholly 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS 

lacking  in  either  of  their  forebears.  Nor 
did  the  new  trees  show  any  similarity  in 
growth  to  the  old,  a  new  tree  in  thirteen 
years  having  grown  six  times  as  large  of 
girth  and  six  times  as  tall  as  the  parents  had 
grown  in  twenty-eight  years. 

Here,  as  in  hundreds  of  cases  all  through 
his  career,  the  so-called  laws  have  been 
absolutely  disproven  by  the  evidence  accu- 
mulating in  the  tests  carried  on  upon  so 
colossal  a  scale.  The  old  laws  were  announced 
upon  much  such  reasoning  as  this:  Here 
are  ten  or  twenty  or  even  a  hundred  men; 
a  certain  number  of  them  will  yield  to 
temptation  of  a  certain  type,  a  certain  other 
per  cent  will  stand  fast:  seventy-five  of 
a  hundred  children  born  of  vicious  parents 
will  grow  up  scoundrels,  twenty-five  per 
cent  saints.  The  instances,  for  illustration, 
develop  as  predicted,  but  outside  the  hundred 
examples  lie  ten  million  others,  influenced, 
as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Burbank's  plants,  by 
a  million  hereditary  tendencies  and  a  million 
events  of  environment  leading  to  totally 
different  ends,  setting  at  naught  the  inferences 
to  be  drawn  from  the  hundred. 

343 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

He  would  welcome,  with  the  eagerness 
of  any  lover  of  truth,  any  confirmation  of 
law,  for  his  whole  life  is  pledged  to  law. 
He  had  no  ulterior  purpose  in  disproving 
the  Mendelian  laws :  in  point  of  fact,  he 
had  disproved  them  over  and  over  again 
years  before  he  knew  they  existed. 

Mr.  Burbank,  in  another  instance,  has 
brought  to  light  the  absurdity  of  reasoning 
from  inadequate  data.  Leading  scientists 
have  maintained,  and  their  followers  have 
added  the  weight  of  their  evidence,  that 
"  acquired  characteristics  are  never  trans- 
mitted." In  the  limitless  fields  of  operation 
before  him,  Mr.  Burbank  has  not  only 
disproven  this  over  and  over  again,  but 
has  established  the  opposite,  that  acquired 
characteristics  are  the  only  ones  that  are 
transmitted. 

Another  theory,  now  widely  accepted  by 
scientific  men,  the  theory  of  mutation,  or 
saltation,  new  forms  of  life  being  produced 
by  springing  from  the  parents  by  a  sudden 
leap  or  bound,  evolution  thus  going  on  by 
rare  and  sudden  leaps,  appears  to  have  been 
overthrown  by  Mr.  Burbank.  Instead  of 

344 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS 

any  law  or  other  force  governing  these 
peculiar  mutations, — which  mutations,  it  has 
been  held,  produce  new  and  stable  varieties 
from  which  Nature  selects  those  which  are 
fit, —  Mr.  Burbank,  times  without  number, 
has  produced  these  strange  mutations  at 
will.  They  can  be  produced,  he  says,  by 
anybody  who  systematically  sets  to  work  to 
disturb  the  life  habits  of  the  plants.  Thus 
the  peculiar  phenomena  which  scientific  ob- 
servers on  a  small  field  have  so  sedulously 
studied,  and  have  at  last  come  to  consider 
the  result  of  a  supreme  act  of  Nature,  are 
entirely  within  the  province  of  any  market- 
gardener  or  amateur  plant-breeder.  In  ad- 
dition to  this,  he  has  demonstrated  that 
that  which  the  scientists  have  called  mutations 
are  not  periods  in  the  plant  life  at  all,  but 
only  states  or  conditions,  the  result  of  heredi- 
tary tendencies  and  environments. 

Putting  the  matter  in  condensed  form 
he  says : 

"By  crossing  different  species  we  can  form 
more  variations  and  mutations  in  a  half 
dozen  generations  than  will  be  developed  by 
ordinary  variations  in  a  thousand  generations." 

345 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

It  is  but  natural  that  out  of  all  tne 
intimate  relationship  he  has  borne  to  Nature 
and  out  of  all  his  many  years  of  intense 
study  of  her  inner  life  upon  so  grand  a  scale, 
he  should  have  reached  certain  well-defined 
theories.  One  of  these  pertains  to  heredity, 
a  term  at  best  vague,  which  has  been  loosely 
held.  Out  of  the  years  of  his  investigations, 
carried  on  upon  such  a  colossal  scale,  he  has 
established  the  principle  that  heredity  is 
"the  sum  of  all  the  effects  of  all  the  en- 
vironment of  all  past  generations,  on  the  re- 
sponsive, ever-moving  life  forces;  or,  in  other 
words,  a  record  kept  by  the  vital  Principle 
of  its  struggle  onward  and  upward  from 
simple  forms  of  life;  not  vague  in  any  re- 
spect, but  indelibly  fixed  by  repetition." 

He  condenses  this  into  the  statement : 
Heredity  is  the  sum  of  all  past  environment. 

Heredity  now  becomes  something  far 
different  from  what  it  had  before  been  held 
to  be.  "  Every  plant,  animal  and  planet,"  he 
holds,  "occupies  its  place  in  the  order  of 
Nature  by  the  action  of  two  forces, —  the 
inherent  constitutional  life-force  with  all  its 
acquired  habits,  the  sum  of  which  is  heredity ; 

346 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS 

and  the  many  complicated  outside  forces  or 
environments.  To  guide  the  interaction  of 
these  two  forces,  both  of  which  are  only 
different  expressions  of  the  one  eternal 
force,  is,  and  must  be,  the  sole  object  of  the 
breeder,  whether  of  plants  or  animals." 

He  speaks  of  a  vital  Principle.  He  does 
not  attempt  to  establish  its  essence  or 
identity,  but  he  says: 

"  When  simple  cells  become  joined  together, 
mutual  protection  is  assured,  and  we  know 
that  they  exhibit  organized  forces  in  new 
directions  which  were  impossible  by  any 
of  the  individual  cells  not  associated  in  a 
cell-colony  with  its  fellows.  These  cell- 
colonies  will,  if  environment  is  favorable, 
increase  in  strength,  while  colonies  less  favor- 
ably situated  may  be  crippled  or  destroyed. 
We  see  this  natural  selection  in  all  life,  every 
day  all  around  us.  But  this  is  only  one  of 
the  many  forces  at  work  in  the  upward, 
outward  and  onward  movement  of  life." 

Other  men  who  have  gone  deeply  into 
the  inner  life  of  Nature  have  given  the 
world  elaborate  systems  by  which  to  account 
for  and  interpret  many  of  the  acts  of  Nature. 

347 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

It  seems  but  fair  to  say  that  very  much  of 
these  systems  has  been  built  up  upon  a 
slender  base  of  experimentation.  From  his 
unparalleled  opportunities  of  observation  he 
arrives  at  certain  conclusions.  He  does  not 
ignore  the  Survival  of  the  Fittest  or  the 
principles  of  Natural  Selection,  but  he  goes 
beyond  them.  The  grand  principal  cause 
of  all  existing  species  and  varieties  of  earth, 
sea  and  air,  he  holds  to  be  the  Crossing  of 
Species.  Upon  this  point  he  says: 

"The  very  existence  of  the  higher  orders 
of  plants  which  now  inhabit  the  earth  has 
been  secured  to  them  only  by  their  power 
of  adaptation  to  crossings,  for  through  the 
variations  produced  by  the  combination  of 
numerous  tendencies,  individuals  are  pro- 
duced which  are  better  endowed  to  meet 
the  prevailing  conditions  of  life.  Thus,  to 
Nature's  persistence  in  crossing  do  we  owe 
all  that  earth  now  produces  in  man,  animals 
or  plants;  and  this  magnificently  stupendous 
fact  may  also  be  safely  carried  into  the 
domain  of  chemistry  as  well ;  for  what  are 
common  air  and  water  but  Nature's  earlier 
efforts  in  that  line,  and  our  nourishing  foods 

348 


The  improved  everlasting  flower  to  be  used  in  millinery 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS 

but  the   result  of  myriad  complex   chemical 
affinities  of  later  date? 

"  Past  tendencies  must  fade  somewhat 
as  the  new  ones  are  added,  and  as  each 
individual  has  ancestors  in  untold  numbers, 
and  as  each  is  bound  to  the  other  like  the 
numerous  threads  of  a  fabric,  individuals 
within  a  species,  by  thus  having  very  numer- 
ous similar  lines  of  heredity,  are  very  much 
alike ;  yet  no  two  are  just  alike.  Cross  two 
species  and  see  what  the  results  will  be : 
Sharp  mutations  and  variations  appear,  not 
in  the  first  generation,  as  the  two  are  bound 
together  in  a  mutual  compact,  which,  when 
unloosed  by  the  next  and  succeeding  gen- 
erations, will  branch  in  every  direction  as 
the  myriad  different  lines  of  heredity  combine 
and  press  forward  in  various  new  directions. 
A  study  of  plants  or  animals  belonging  to 
widely  different  species  and  even  genera 
which  have  been  under  similar  environment 
for  a  long  time  will  always  show  a  similarity 
in  many  respects  in  the  various  means  they 
are  compelled  to  adopt  for  defense  in  the 
preservation  and  reproduction  of  life.  Desert 
plants  often  have  thorns,  acrid  qualities  and 

349 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

reduced  foliage  surface,  while  in  moist  cli- 
mates thorns  are  seldom  seen,  and  foliage 
is  more  abundant  and  not  so  often  acrid 
or  distasteful.  Similar  environments  produce 
similar  results  on  the  life-forces,  even  with 
the  most  distantly  related  plants  or  animals. 
This  fact  alone  should  be  proof  enough, 
if  proof  were  still  needed,  that  acquired 
characters  are  transmitted,  even  though  in 
opposition  to  numerous  popular  theories. 
All  characters  which  are  transmitted  have 
once  been  acquired.  The  life -forces  are  con- 
stantly pressing  forward  to  obtain  any  space 
which  can  be  occupied,  and  if  they  find 
an  open  avenue,  always  make  use  of  it, 
as  far  as  heredity  will  allow." 

In  this  new  century  the  new  man  comes, 
discarding  the  narrow  canvases  of  the  studios, 
and,  upon  the  great  canvas  of  the  earth 
itself,  he  traces  the  supreme  function  of 
Nature,  the  Crossing  of  Species;  and  with 
this,  the  working  of  a  vital  Principle  eternally 
recording  Heredity,  that  sum  of  all  past 
environments.  He  sees  all  Motion,  all  Life, 
all  Force,  all  so-called  Matter,  following  the 
same  law  of  heredity  in  plant-  and  animal- 

350 


THEORIES   AND   CONCLUSIONS 

life,  a  forward  movement  toward  attractions, 
through  lines  of  least  resistance. 

Summing  up,  he  says: 

"My  theory  of  the  laws  and  underlying 
principles  of  plant  creation  is,  in  many 
respects,  opposed  to  the  theories  of  the 
materialists.  I  am  a  sincere  believer  in  a 
higher  power  than  man's.  All  my  investi- 
gations have  led  me  away  from  the  idea  of 
a  dead  material  universe  tossed  about  by 
various  forces,  to  that  of  a  universe  which 
is  absolutely  all  force,  life,  soul,  thought,  or 
whatever  name  we  may  choose  to  call  it. 
Every  atom,  molecule,  plant,  animal  or  planet, 
is  only  an  aggregation  of  organized  unit 
forces,  held  in  place  by  stronger  forces,  thus 
holding  them  for  a  time  latent,  though 
teeming  with  inconceivable  power.  All  life 
on  our  planet  is,  so  to  speak,  just  on  the 
outer  fringe  of  this  infinite  ocean  of  force. 
The  universe  is  not  half  dead,  but  all  alive." 


351 


CHAPTER  XXII 

HIS  PLACE  IN  THE  WORLD 

"I  F  it  be  difficult  accurately  to  assign  a  man 
-*-  to  his  final  place  in  the  world  within  a 
generation,  or  even  a  century,  of  his  death,  it 
is  far  more  difficult  properly  to  locate  him 
while  still  in  the  flesh.  At  the  same  time,  if 
the  deeds  done  have  been  apart  from  those  of 
other  men,  and  of  commanding  significance, 
without  duplication  in  their  sweep  in  history, 
we  may,  by  some  consideration  of  his  accom- 
plishment and  some  setting  forth  of  his  men- 
tal furnishing,  fairly  suggest  something  of  the 
estimate  posterity  may  place  upon  him. 

First  among  all  other  things,  Luther  Bur- 
bank  is  unique  among  men  in  his  knowledge 
of  Nature  and  in  his  manipulation  and  inter- 
pretation of  her  forces.  Other  men  have  been 
plant -breeders  and  have  produced  remarkable 
results  in  improved  fruits  and  flowers.  They 
have  achieved  a  merited  reputation ;  indeed,  in 
some  cases  this  high  reputation  has  passed  on 

352 


HIS   PLACE   IN   THE  WORLD 

into  a  certain  measure  of  fame.  Some  of  these 
have  been  working  along  strictly  scientific 
lines,  others  have  been  enthusiastic  horticul- 
turists or  seedsmen,  preeminently  practical 
and  using  agencies  to  reach  certain  desired 
ends  without  thought  of  the  rationale  of  their 
actual  instruments  and  methods,  or  any  esti- 
mate of  the  forces  at  work.  These  latter  men 
are  artisans  in  plant -breeding,  building  in 
many  a  case  beautiful  and  important  works. 
But  Mr.  Burbank  has  not  only  created 
plants  and  improved  them  upon  a  colossal 
scale,  but  he  has,  at  the  same  time,  studied 
nature  with  infinite  patience  and  skill,  observ- 
ing her  manifestations,  analyzing  her  laws, 
and  defining  and  interpreting  her  functions. 
His  life-work  has  been  primarily  two-fold  in 
its  sweep :  First,  embracing  the  widest  possible 
service  to  the  world;  and,  second,  accomplish- 
ing this  service  under  the  most  exacting  and 
persistent  adherence  to  scientific  truth.  He  is, 
in  his  department  of  life,  scientist  and  philoso- 
pher and  plant -breeder  and  horticulturist 
bound  into  one.  He  has  not  confined  his 
study,  as  other  men  have,  to  a  narrow  field. 
AH  the  great  experiments  he  has  carried  on 

353 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

are  in  a  certain  sense  similar  in  character,  but, 
at  the  same  time,  each  is  different  from  each 
other  one  and  each  one  leads  into  new  and 
untrodden  paths.  He  is  preeminently  an  ob- 
server as  well  as  a  man  of  rare  intuition  and 
wonderful  power  of  memory.  He  not  only 
notes  those  essentially  obvious  characteristics 
which  the  average  man  may  see,  and  assigns 
them  unerringly  to  their  proper  place,  but  he 
looks  further  on  and  deeper  into  the  subtler 
life  of  nature  and,  as  unerringly,  assorts  and 
eliminates  and  assigns.  He  adds  all  these 
manifestations  of  nature  to  the  sum  of  all  his 
experiences,  and  from  them  all  he  draws  for 
his  material  for  his  own  mental  furnishing 
and  equipment. 

I  have  ridden  with  him  over  the  road  to 
Sebastopol  on  fair  winter  days  when  the 
earth  was  green  and  beautiful,  and  have 
many  a  time  been  struck  by  the  swiftness 
with  which  he  would  turn  from  the  dis- 
cussion of  some  deep  problem  of  human 
life  to  note  the  peculiar  brilliancy  of  the 
song  of  some  early  linnet  in  the  hedge;  or  to 
point  out  the  fact  that  the  crimson-winged 
blackbird  on  the  fence  was  tardy  this  season 

354 


The  re-created  wild  onion  flower,  Brodi&a  capitata,  changed  from 
a  deep  purple  to  purest  white  and  greatly  increased  in  size 


HIS   PLACE   IN   THE  WORLD 

in  putting  on  his  colors ;  or  to  call  attention  to 
some  peculiarity  of  a  parasitical  moss  growing 
upon  a  huge  live-oak;  or  to  point  out  how  a 
certain  piece  of  road  making  in  progress  should 
be  done  to  secure  the  best  results  for  economy 
or  permanancy;  or  swiftly  to  note  some  geo- 
logical sign  along  the  way  that  proved  the 
theory  that  this  beautiful  valley  hard  by  the 
Pacific  was  an  arm  of  the  sea  not  longer  ago 
than  the  day  in  the  winter  of  1577  when  Sir 
Francis  Drake,  harassing  many  seas  upon  his 
buccaneering  voyages,  sailed  over  the  very 
ground  we  were  traveling  over  on  his  way  up 
the  great  bay  of  San  Francisco.  Then  swiftly 
backward  his  thoughts  fly  to  the  subject 
under  consideration, — perhaps  the  elusive  but 
fascinating  phenomena  that  have  their  mani- 
festation in  the  acts  of  the  subliminal  self,  or 
the  curious  coincidences  of  mental  telepathy, 
or  the  survival  of  the  soul  after  death,  or  some 
acute  problem  in  sociology,  or  some  topic 
broadly  religious  or  humanitarian.  In  any 
such  discussion,  one  must  steadily  be  impressed 
by  the  clarity  of  his  mental  vision,  by  the 
neatness  and  precision  of  his  language,  by  the 
cogency  of  his  thought. 

355 


NEW   CREATIONS    IN   PLANT   LIFE 

It  has  become  the  academic  fashion  to  take 
the  ground  that,  unless  a  man  is  a  man  of 
record,  unless  he  keeps  a  close  and  systematic 
note-book,  so  that  at  any  given  time  he  can 
refer  authoritatively  to  any  given  step  in  a 
given  research  and  show  precisely  what  the 
conditions  and  what  the  tendencies  at  that 
moment,  he  cannot  be  classed  a  scientist.  In 
the  unusual  sweep  of  his  lifework,  unusual  in 
its  results  as  well  as  in  his  understanding  of  its 
inner  life,  Mr.  Burbank  has  steadily  set  at 
naught  this  contention.  He  has  not  kept  such 
records  of  his  work  as  should  have  been  kept, 
— and  no  one  better  than  himself  knows  and 
laments  this  fact, —  such  records  as  his  larger 
opportunities  now  provide;  but  the  keeping  of 
these  records  in  the  past  would  not  have  made 
him  a  scientific  man, — they  are  incidental, 
even  if  important.  He  has  not  disdained  rec- 
ords, he  simply  has  not  had  time  to  make 
them  himself  or  money  to  hire  others  to  make 
them,  and  yet  in  his  plan  books,  elsewhere 
noted, — books  which  probably  not  one  man  in 
ten  thousand  who  has  visited  him  ever  heard 
of, — he  has  been  eminently  scientific,  even 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  academician 

356 


HIS   PLACE   IN  THE  WORLD 

But,  in  considering  Mr.  Bur  bank's  place 
in  the  world,  it  must  steadily  be  borne  in 
mind  that  he  is  primarily  not  a  mere  recorder 
or  reporter  of  facts.  Two  men  stand  in  the 
presence  of  a  great  historic  event,  it  may 
be  the  signing  of  a  treaty  for  international 
peace,  or  the  elevation  of  a  prelate  of  the 
church,  or  the  inauguration  of  a  president, 
or  the  crowning  of  the  King  in  the  historic 
Abbey  by  the  slow -moving  Thames.  One 
man  carries  a  camera,  the  most  perfect  of 
its  kind,  ready  to  reproduce  everything  that 
transpires,  accurate  to  the  verge  of  painfulness. 
The  other  is  making  mental,  and,  so  far  as 
may  be,  manual  sketches  upon  paper,  the 
basis  of  future  action ;  one  is  a  photographer ; 
the  other  a  painter.  One  gives  a  record  of 
the  event,  exact  to  a  nicety,  perfect  in  detail, 
truthful  in  outward  exposition,  but  as  devoid 
of  soul  as  the  sensitized  plate  upon  which 
the  scene  is  printed ;  the  other  paints  a 
masterpiece  in  which  the  splendid  scene 
reappears  in  its  proper  perspective  with 
non-essentials  eliminated,  with  essentials  in 
proportion,  and,  over  all  and  through  all, 
the  very  soul  and  spirit  of  a  noble  historic 

357 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT  LIFE 

*/  , 

event.  One  records,  the  other  creates;  one 
is  the  perfection  of  mechanism,  the  other 
is  the  incarnation  of  truth;  one  is  purely 
and  everlastingly  material,  the  other  is  as 
everlastingly  spiritual. 

The  average  so-called  scientific  man,  the 
one  who  has  made  the  course  of  the  uni- 
versity with  distinction,  but  who  puts  his 
knowledge  to  no  higher  purpose  than  to  record 
certain  facts  which  he  accumulates  and  tries 
to  set  in  logical  sequence  beyond  certain 
other  facts,  is  an  important  man  in  the 
construction  of  the  framework  of  science, 
but,  slightly  to  change  the  figure  for  con- 
sistency's sake,  he  is  the  photographer,  the 
recorder,  while  Mr.  Burbank  and  every  other 
man  along  down  the  long  line  of  noble 
descent,  the  clans  of  Darwin  and  Spencer, 
and  Huxley  and  Tyndall, — is  the  painter, 
the  creator. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  Mr.  Burbank's 
attitude  toward  modern  education.  It  should 
not  be  thought  that,  because  he  has  not  had 
a  university  training,  therefore  he  is  inimical 
to  such  training.  It  is  not  the  training  in 
itself  that  he  antagonizes  or  deplores,  but 

358 


Rare  effects  developed  in  the  transformation  of  the  columbine 
about  one -fourth  natural  size 


HIS   PLACE   IN   THE  WORLD 

the  character  of  the  training,  often,  to  his 
mind,  in  the  department  to  which  he  has 
given  his  life,  fatally  deficient,  tending  toward 
artificiality  and  veneer,  as  well  as  toward  a 
certain  specialized  one-sidedness.  He  has 
taken  his  place  in  the  world  on  this  point 
alongside "  many  other  men  of  prominence 
who  are  now  secretly  or  openly  opposed  to 
certain  superficial  tendencies  in  modern  edu- 
cational life,  and  stands  for  such  a  revision 
of  curricula  as  shall  leave  the  average  college 
and  university  graduate  master  of  certain 
essential  fundamentals  of  which  too  often 
he  is  lamentably  ignorant.  In  discussing  the 
moral  and  religious  influence  of  science, 
Herbert  Spencer  takes  occasion  to  quote 
Tyndall  on  inductive  inquiry,  and  the  latter 's 
words  are  so  illustrative  of  the  life  of  Mr. 
Burbank  that  they  are  here  quoted: 

"  Inductive  inquiry  requires  patient  in- 
dustry and  an  humble  and  conscientious 
acceptance  of  what  Nature  reveals.  The 
first  condition  of  success  is  an  honest  recep- 
tivity and  a  willingness  to  abandon  all 
preconceived  notions,  however  cherished,  if 
they  be  found  to  contradict  the  truth,  Believe 

359 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT  LIFE 

me,  a  self-renunciation  which  has  something 
noble  in  it,  and  of  which  the  world  never 
hears,  is  often  enacted  in  the  private  ex- 
perience of  the  true  votary  of  science." 

The  recognition  of  Mr.  Burbank  was  at 
first  slow  because  he  has  steadfastly  refrained 
from  courting  publicity,  but  it  has  proceeded 
upon  steadily  advancing  lines.  One  of  the 
most  satisfying  public  acts  in  his  career  so 
far,  because  it  was  an  act  of  his  fellows,  was 
the  striking  of  a  gold  medal  in  his  honor, 
in  May,  1903,  on  the  part  of  the  California 
Academy  of  Sciences,  a  notable  body  of 
western  men.  It  was  the  date  of  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  establishment  of  the 
Academy.  Mr.  Burbank  was  chosen  as  the 
one  whom  this  commemoration  medal  should 
honor.  On  the  obverse  of  the  medal  are 
the  words : 


California  Hraoemp  of 

Ktoarbrt  to 

Hutfjer  Sfrurbanfe 

jjteentortou*  Work  in  i^ebeloptng  «j£eto 
jform*  of  pant  Utfe.   M*P  18, 1903 

360 


HIS  PLACE   IN  THE  WORLD 

On  the  reverse  is  a  design  of  the  goaaesses 
Pomona  and  Flora  placing  a  laurel  wreath 
upon  the  head  of  a  young  man  engaged  in 
budding  a  fruit  tree. 

He  has  received  visits  from  many  of  the 
leading  scientific  men  of  two  hemispheres, 
who  have  been  generously  appreciative  of 
his  great  work,  as  well  as  thousands  of  calls 
every  year  from  people  in  other  walks  of 
life  from  many  different  countries ;  he  has 
received  letters  from  great  men  throughout 
the  world,  among  them  a  number  of  crowned 
heads,  some  speaking  words  of  praise  for  his 
scientific  achievements,  some  bearing  elo- 
quently upon  his  service  to  mankind ;  he 
has  been  given  many  recognitions  at  county, 
state  and  worlds'  fairs ;  he  was  elected  the 
first  honorary  member,  out  of  a  possible 
ten,  of  the  Plant  and  Animal  Breeders' 
Association  of  the  United  States  and  Canada  ; 
he  is  a  Fellow  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  and  an 
honorary  member  of  numerous  scientific 
societies;  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Science 
has  been  conferred  upon  him  by  Tufts 
College;  he  is  a  lecturer  on  scientific  plant- 

361 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

evolution  in  Leland  Stanford  University;  ne 
has  been  granted  a  subvention  of  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  by  the  Carnegie  Institution. 
He  has  not  attempted  to  fathom  all  the 
depths  that  Nature  holds,  but  he  has  so 
sounded  those  depths  he  has  selected  for 
investigation,  and  so  set  his  life  to  the 
advancement  of  the  world,  that  his  place 
must  not  only  be  a  noble  one  today,  but  a 
still  more  commanding  one  tomorrow.  It  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  volumes  could 
be  prepared  from  the  newspaper  references 
to  Mr.  Burbank  made  in  the  past  year  or  two. 
The  following  quotation  from  a  New  Jersey 
newspaper,  the  "News,"  of  Newark,  may  be 
taken  as  a  fair  summing  up  of  the  more 
serious  popular  estimates  of  his  life  and 
achievements : 

"Luther  Burbank, —  until  recently  an 
unknown  name, — has  bestowed  upon  the 
world  a  greater  increment  of  values,  in  things 
done  and  things  inevitable,  which  are  for 
the  permanent  betterment  of  civilization,  than 
any  score  of  celebrities  in  this  decade  or  in 
any  previous  decade  or  century,  when  the 
fact  is  submitted  to  ultimate  analysis.  He 

362 


HIS   PLACE   IN   THE  WORLD 

has  produced  more  new  plant-life,  fruits,  ,/ 
grasses,  trees  and  flowers,  than  any  other 
man  who  has  ever  lived.  He  has  done  with 
an  intelligent  purpose,  clearly  grasping  its 
end  and  on  a  large  scale,  what  a  few  have 
done  accidentally  or  capriciously,  on  a  small 
scale.  He  comes  nearer  to  being  what  may  ., 
be  called  a  creative  mind  in  the  product  of 
organic  growth  than  any  other  scientific 
worker  on  record.  .  .  .  His  name  is  bruited 
today  all  over  the  civilized  world.  Hundreds 
of  able  experimentalists  are  no  doubt  eagerly 
following  in  the  path  he  has  blazed.  What 
science  will  accomplish,  thus  set  in  motion, 
the  wildest  imagining  may  easily  fail  to 
grasp.  The  reflex  of  all  future  achievement 
will  throw  back  its  glory  to  brighten  Burbank's 
aureole,  for  he  will  have  been  the  master 
and  protagonist.  Is  it  too  much  to  say  that 
among  the  great  benefactors  of  their  race 
Luther  Burbank  will  be  unique  in  the  splendor 
of  his  monument?  That  can  never  crumble 
while  sunshine,  air  and  soil  carry  on  their 
chemistry." 

Hugo  de  Vries,  the  Dutch  botanist,  when 
in  this  country  in  1904,  said  of  Mr.  Burbank 

363 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

at  a  banquet  which  he  attended  in  San 
Francisco : 

"The  flowers  and  fruits  of  California  are 
less  wonderful  than  the  flowers  and  fruits 
which  Mr.  Burbank  has  made.  He  is  a  great 
and  unique  genius.  The  desire  to  see  what 
he  has  done  was  the  chief  motive  of  my 
coming  to  America.  He  has  carried  on  the 
breeding  and  selection  of  plants  to  definite 
ends.  Such  a  knowledge  of  Nature  and  such 
ability  to  handle  plant-life  would  be  possible 
only  to  one  possessing  genius  of  a  high  order." 

That  which  distinguishes  Luther  Burbank 
is  four-fold  in  its  bearing  — 

1.  He    is    unique    in    his    knowledge    of 
Nature    and    in    his    physical    manipulation 
and  interpretation  of  her  forces. 

2.  He    has    already    accomplished    in    his 
chosen  line  of  life  more  than  any  other  man 
who   has   ever   lived;   indeed,  when   the  full 
sweep   of   all    his   achievements   shall   finally 
come  into  view,  it  may  not  be  unfair  to  say 
that  not  all  the  plant-breeders  who  have  pre- 
ceded or  accompanied  him  have  done  so  much 
for  the  world.    He  has  done  more  in  a  gener- 
ation  in   creating   new   and   useful  types   of 

364 


HIS   PLACE    IN   THE  WORLD 

plant -life  than  Nature,  unaided,  could  have 
done  in  a  millenium, —  more,  indeed,  than 
Nature,  unaided,  would  ever  have  accom- 
plished. 

3.  His  direct  influence  upon  the  physical 
character  of  the  world  is  no  less  significant 
than  his  influence  upon  his    contemporaries. 

4.  He  is   not   only  a  great  power  in  the 
physical  manipulation   of  Nature,  but   he   is 
a   deep  and  accurate  thinker  and  a  man  of 
indisputable  scientific  attainments. 

I  cannot  better  conclude  this  necessarily 
imperfect  showing  than  by  the  following  by 
David  Starr  Jordan,  president  of  Leland 
Stanford  University,  in  answer  to  a  request 
as  to  the  place  of  Luther  Burbank  in  the 
world : 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  Mr.  Burbank,  while 
primarily  an  artist,  is,  in  his  general  attitude, 
essentially  a  man  of  science.  Academic  he 
doubtless  is  not,  but  the  qualities  we  call 
scientific  are  not  necessarily  bred  in  the 
academy.  Science  is  human  experience  tested 
and  set  in  order.  Within  the  range  of 
molding  plants,  Mr.  Burbank  has  read  care- 
fully, and  thought  carefully,  maturing  his 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

own  generalizations  and  resting  them  on 
the  basis  of  his  own  knowledge.  Within  the 
range  of  his  own  experience  he  is  an  original 
and  logical  thinker,  and  his  conclusions  are 
in  general  most  sound.  He  is  not  a  physiolo- 
gist, still  less  a  histologist,  and  the  phenomena 
of  heredity  as  shown  in  cell  -  division  and 
cell -multiplication  he  has  not  studied  for 
himself.  The  researches  of  Weismann  and 
those  suggested  by  his  theories  of  heredity 
Burbank  has  given  little  attention  to,  and 
he  has,  therefore,  a  confidence  in  the  inheri- 
tance of  acquired  characters,  such  as  effects 
of  environment,  which  most  biologists  of 
today  do  not  share.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
of  the  best  of  them  would  fully  agree  with 
Burbank. 

"  In  his  field  of  the  application  of  our 
knowledge  of  heredity,  selection  and  crossing 
to  the  development  of  plants,  he  stands 
unique  in  the  world.  No  one  else,  whatever 
his  appliances,  has  done  as  much  as  Burbank, 
or  disclosed  as  much  of  the  laws  governing 
these  phenomena.  Burbank  has  worked  for 
years  alone,  not  understood  and  not  appre- 
ciated, at  a  constant  financial  loss,  and  for  this 

366 


A  cactus  blossom 


HIS   PLACE   IN   THE  WORLD 

reason, — that  his  instincts  and  purposes  are 
essentially  those  of  a  scientific  man,  not  of 
a  nurseryman  nor  even  of  a  horticulturist. 
To  have  tried  fewer  experiments  and  all  of 
a  kind  likely  to  prove  economically  valuable, 
and  finally  to  have  exploited  these  as  a 
nurseryman,  would  have  brought  him  more 
money.  In  his  own  way,  Burbank  belongs  in 
the  class  of  Faraday  and  the  long  array  of 
self-taught  great  men  who  lived  while  the 
universities  were  spending  their  strength  on 
fine  points  of  grammar  and  hazy  conceptions 
of  philosophy.  His  work  is  already  an  in- 
spiration to  botanists  as  well  as  horticulturists, 
opening  a  new  line  of  research  in  heredity, 
as  well  as  a  new  field  for  economic  advance. 
Already  his  methods  are  yielding  rich  results 
in  the  hands  of  others.  We  shall,  by  such 
means,  find  much  more  than  we  now  know  of 
the  evolution  of  organisms,  while  the  improve- 
ment of  organisms  for  the  use  and  pleasure 
of  man  is  yet  in  its  infancy. 

"  Scientific  men  belong  to  many  classes ; 
some  observe,  some  compare,  some  think,  and 
some  carry  knowledge  into  action.  There 
is  need  for  all  kinds  and  a  place  for  all.  With 

367 


NEW   CREATIONS   IN   PLANT   LIFE 

a  broader  opportunity,  Burbank  could  have 
done  a  greater  variety  of  things  and  touched 
life  at  more  points;  but,  at  the  same  time, 
he  would  have  lost  something  of  his  simple 
intensity  and  fine  delicacy  of  touch, — things 
which  the  schools  do  not  always  give  and 
which  too  much  contact  with  men  sometimes 
takes  away. 

"  Great  men  are  usually  men  of  simple, 
direct  sincerity  of  character.  These  marks 
are  found  in  Burbank.  As  sweet,  straight- 
forward, and  as  unspoiled  as  a  child,  always 
interested  in  the  phenomena  of  Nature,  and 
never  seeking  fame  or  money  or  anything 
else  for  himself.  If  his  place  is  outside  the 
temple  of  science,  there  are  not  many  of 
the  rest  of  us  who  will  be  found  fit  to  enter." 

All  that  Luther  Burbank  has  received,— 
observation  of  the  keenest  type,  unsurpassed 
intuition,  knowledge,  understanding,  scientific 
attainment,  in  a  word,  genius  of  the  highest 
order  for  the  interpretation  of  the  work  to 
which  he  has  devoted  his  life, — he  has  accepted 
as  a  sacred  trust,  not  to  be  dissipated  but 
to  be  administered  with  unswerving  fidelity 
to  the  common  interests  of  mankind. 

368 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


/me 
//  -/o 

IJun'SCJf 
JUNi     1956  LU 


EC.C1R. 


1979 


;     LD  21-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476 


13  1979 


2Js^D 

UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORNIA 

5V~/T5 


YB  4624 


QJS^Q 
LIBRARY    OF   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFOR! 


<=> 

>- 

oc 


UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA   '       LIBRJRY   OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CtLIFORI 
5V 

~C  •  x*< 


